Konoha's Loudest Team
by Spiralturtle6
Summary: (A repost from my other account JinxWasHere (lost email)) A decision by their leader will lead three young Genin to achieve their dreams, or will it send all of those dreams crashing into the ground...Now begins the adventure of Team Seven, what can they accomplish as not only the Loudest Team, but also the most Stubborn...(rating maaaaaaaaaay go up)
1. A new set up means complaints

**PLEASE READ AN!**

**Hey Guys and Gals! Listen, this story was published on my other account JinxWasHere. However I forgot the email that I used for the account sooooo...I just decided to repost it here. Please enjoy (if it's your first time reading this + a new chapter)**

* * *

**Chapter 1: A new set up means complaints**

"…And it is the reason that I'm changing the teaming system" an old man in white and red robes, with a matching hat, finished his decree.

This old man was the Third Hokage, or Hiruzen Sarutobi. He was the man that was tasked with leading and being the figure head of Konoha, the Village hidden in the Leaves.

He had done his duties for many years and was ready to retire, but it is unfortunate that nobody has what it takes to be the Hokage…or as Hiruzen would say _has the will of Fire_. That is the motto he lived by.

He was quite content with his decree and it showed on his peaceful looking face.

The people standing in front of him, however, weren't okay with it.

"Why?!" majority shouted in surprise and shock. The old man opened his closed eyes and adopted a look that looked very unimpressed at the question.

"I thought I just explained it" he said with a frown on his face. The others didn't back down from their questions and need for more answers, and they were being very vocal about it. It was starting to get on the old man's nerves.

"Silence!" he shouted amongst the other shouting, it was enough to make them all quiet down "As I said before, the reason I'm not following the same old placement system we have been using for years is because of a recent traitorous act that could have put the whole village in danger had it not been stopped"

"But Lord Third" a woman dressed in a dress that was made of bandages stepped forward "that doesn't explain why you are changing the system Konoha has set up since the time the academy was created"

"It's simple Kurenai" Hiruzen laced his fingers in front of his face well resting his elbows on the table in front of him "Mizuki was a teacher here at the academy and he knew many things about the students that had just recently passed. And as a teacher he was required to know the inner workings of the academy.

"That would mean that he knows how we decide which Genin is to be paired up on a team. It doesn't help that he saw who was going to be which teacher for each team as well.

"Normally we have a tracker team, an interrogation and recon team as well as a front line team, but Mizuki could have leaked this information to whoever he was trying to deliver the Forbidden scroll to and they could be putting together counter measures to win against this new group of Genin.

"It doesn't help that clan heirs are a part of this new graduating group. I want to prevent any of them to get captured and taken to other villages, not only because it will give them secrets about our clans but because I want to do everything in my power to not allow children to suffer that kind of torture" the Third closed his eyes as if he was trying to forget something horrible "Kurenai, no, all of you know what can happen to a female Kunoichi that is captured by the enemy. Especially those that have a bloodline"

That statement made every unanswered question vanish. However there was one question that needed to be asked.

"So what are the new teams then?" asked a bearded man that was standing next to Kurenai.

The Third smiled at the man "They are-"

* * *

"Hehehehe" a whiskered blond boy was snickering to himself as he sat in his class room. He wore an orange jumpsuit that had blue on the shoulders with a big white collar. On the arm was a spiral with a tassel attached to it.

"Naruto?" the blond boy looked up to see a fellow classmate of his standing by his desk looking at the boy as if he was seeing him for the first time in a long time "what are you doing here? This is for those of us that passed"

The boy wore a grey jacket over a fishnet top and had on brown pants. He had his hair pulled up into a short spikey ponytail that fanned out.

Naruto Uzumaki smirked at the boy and pointed to the head band that he wore proudly on his forehead.

"Are you blind Shikamaru? I did pass!" his smirk turned into grin when he expected Shikamaru to ask him how did he pass? He would if he was in the boy's position.

"Yeah…sure" the other boy yawned then made his way up the stairs. Naruto blinked in surprise and turned in his seat to look at the back of Shikamaru with disbelief.

"Aren't you gonna ask how I passed?" the Nara stopped in his trek up the stairs.

"Honestly? I could care less, Naruto" he sighed then continued up the stairs again, but not before he uttered the word "troublesome"

Naruto's confusion turned into anger and he flipped the retreating boy the bird "I wasn't gonna tell you anyway! Dattebayo!" he turned back in his seat with a huff.

'Geez, you'd think that people would ask about the number one student making a surprise appearance' he thought with a frown on his face. The frown turned into a face splitting grin that made his eyes squint 'Aw well! Who needs 'em! I got here without any of them knowing about my special mission, and how many of them can say they beat up a Chunin? None! That's how many! Ha!'

Naruto was brought out of his mussing by someone shoving his back and forcing his stomach to make contact with the table in front of him. The Uzumaki groaned, why was his stomach so sensitive that morning?

He pushed that thought out of his head to see who would dare do that to him. When Naruto laid eyes on the culprit he had to restrain himself from shouting very _harsh _profanities at them.

"Is that how you were taught to ask someone to move Bastard?" he growled at a black haired boy, who took the seat next to him.

The boy had his hair pointing to the back. His pants were white shorts and he wore a blue top that had a high collar which covered his neck. On his arms were white arm warmers.

The boy just stared at the black board as if it had just murdered his whole family. He laced his fingers in front of his mouth and rested his elbows on the table in front of him.

"I did tell you to move, but you weren't listening so I just walked past" Sasuke Uchiha said, not breaking eye contact with the board.

Both the way he spoke to Naruto and the way we didn't even look him in the eye when he did, just infuriated the blond even more.

"Bastard" Naruto growled but Sasuke had stopped paying attention to the blond boy beside him.

'He's such a stuck up bastard' the Uzumaki turned away from glaring at the boy, hoping he would burst into flames 'I hope I don't end up on his team' he looked up at the ceiling with a goofy grin on his face.

'There's only one person I want to be on a team with-' he was broken from his musings by the door of the classroom opening with a loud BANG.

Naruto's attention shifted over to the open door and a deep blush overtook his cheeks at the person in the doorway. In fact there were two people there that were trying to enter the classroom at the same time.

"Move your giant forehead, you're in the way!" the blond of the duo shouted.

"It's you that's in the way Piggy!" the pink haired one shouted at the blond one.

The two were so focused on trying to be the first in class that lost their footing and tumbled inside.

By now almost the whole class were staring at the two, some of them just ignored them, because this was a common occurrence. None of them had the same kind of goofy grin that Naruto had when staring at the two. He was actually staring at one of them only.

The pink haired one got up first and started scanning the room. She was like a carnivorous animal that was looking for its next meal. He sight landed in Naruto's general direction and her face light up.

It made Naruto's face light up just as much when the girl smiled at him. He ran a hand through his hair to check if it was a mess, he realised that it was always spikey no matter what he did. He quickly put his hand to his mouth to check if his breath stunk and was happy that it smelled minty fresh.

Sakura Haruno stopped by the desk Naruto was sitting at and the blond boy looked up at her with a huge grin on his face and a blush on his cheeks.

"Hey Sakura-chan, do you wa-" he was cut off by the girl he was trying to talk to, by said girl.

"Move idiot!" she shoved the blond boy out of his seat and into the passageway between the desks. Sakura blushed as she stared at Sasuke, looking like a kid asking their parents for sweets.

Sakura was a pink haired girl that wore a red qipao that had slits on both sides and dark green biker shorts.

"Hey Sasuke-kun" she greeted well flipping her hair over her shoulder and batted her eyelashes at him. She went from childish to flirtatious in an instant "is this seat taken? Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

The Uchiha didn't even acknowledge her appearance and kept staring at the board in the front of the class.

"But that's my-" Naruto was once again interrupted when more girls crowded around the desk. One actually stepped on Naruto's hand making the blond boy yelp in pain and cradle the now injured hand.

"That seat belongs to me Forehead girl!" Ino Yamanaka pushed her way to the front of the group and glared at Sakura, who glared right back "besides, why would Sasuke-kun want to sit next to a huge forehead when he can sit next to a beauty like me?" she looked very smugly at the pink haired girl.

Ino was a blond girl with her hair in a ponytail. She had a purple top on that was sleeveless and stopped before her waist with a matching apron skirt. She had on bandages to cover up any skin that would have been shown. She also wore arm warmers.

"I don't think you would be able to fit in the desk Ino-Pig" Sakura shot back, making the smug look on Ino's face turned into a frown.

"Like Sasuke-kun would wanna sit next to either of you" another girl scoffed "it's obvious he wants to sit next to me"

"No. He wants to sit next to me!"

"No! Me!"

And just like that a huge argument broke out among the girls who were all fighting over a seat next to a quiet boy. All the other boys in the class had looks of annoyance that they were sending the group of girls and Sasuke.

Naruto, however, was super pissed. He wasn't pissed at the way the girls were treating him. No, he was pissed at Sasuke Uchiha.

'Why is everything about Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke?!' he raged in his head glaring past the girls and straight at Sasuke, who had closed his eyes in annoyance 'he doesn't even care that he's getting all this attention!'

The group of girls were broken from their arguing when they heard someone jump onto a table. They looked over to see Naruto was crouched on the table and glaring at Sasuke, who was glaring right back.

"What do you think you're doing Naruto-baka!" Sakura shouted at the boy "get off of Sasuke-kun's table!"

"Yeah!" Ino agreed with the girl "and stop glaring at him like that!" the rest of the girls were also shouting at the boy telling him to 'get off' or 'get lost'.

Naruto ignored them and glared harder at Sasuke. The blond boy grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt and lifted him slightly out of his chair.

"You think you're so great don't ya?" he growled strengthening his glare, which Sasuke copied "you've had your whole life served to you on a silver platter and you still push everyone away"

"Get out of my face dobe" was all that Sasuke said in retort.

A boy in the seat in front of Sasuke's had been asleep and had woken up when the girls started screaming at Naruto. He looked around with blurry eyes to figure out what was going on. When he found out what was making the sound that woke him up he sighed and stretched his arms.

When he stretched he hit something and after that there was loud noise with two painful shouts accompanying it. The boy turned around to see what had happened and saw Naruto lying on a desk cradling forehead and Sasuke holding his forehead as well.

What had happened was, when the boy in front had woken up Sasuke had forced Naruto to let go of his shirt and sat back in his seat but the two continued to glare at one another.

When the boy had stretched he knocked Naruto forward, and since he was crouched on the table he lost his balance and fell forward. The two crashed into each other with their forehead protectors, but that was enough to rattle their brains.

"That fucking hurt!" Naruto shouted glaring at Sasuke well he slipped his hand under his forehead protector "It's your fault!"

Sasuke did the same and glared right back at Naruto "My fault?! You're the one that slammed your forehead into mine you idiot!"

"But you're the one that-" Naruto stopped talking when he felt a strong and angry aura being directed at him.

The blond boy turned his head towards the group of girls from before and his eyes widened in fear at the looks he was receiving from them.

"S-Sakura-ch-chan?" he tried to plead with the girl but it fell on deaf ears.

"He hurt Sasuke-kun! Get him!" one of the girls shouted and the others shouted their agreement and descended onto the terrified boy, who started pleading for his life.

* * *

Naruto was laying with his head on the table in front of him bruises marred his face. He had to keep the girls from getting his forehead protector, some of them tried to rip it away and further inflict pain on his forehead, but Naruto had protected that with his life. That meant that his face suffered the beating.

Sakura sat next to him, because she had taken the opportunity when the other girls were beating Naruto to slip in the seat that the boy was sitting in (not before stomping on his stomach).

Since there was no other seat available Naruto sat next to Sakura and was listening to her keep asking Sasuke if he was okay. The boy was fine and was once again glaring at the blackboard.

Naruto sighed and nursed his bruised cheek 'Why can't she worry over me instead of the Bastard' he thought bitterly.

The door to the classroom was opened again, but this time it was Iruka Umino, the teacher of the class that entered. He walked to the front of the class well his attention was focused on the clipboard in his hands.

Iruka was a brown haired man with a scar over his nose and his hair in a similar style to Shikamaru. He wore a flak jacket over a dark blue long sleeve top and a matching coloured pants.

"Good morning class" he said once he made it to the front and put his clipboard on the table that was there. He turned around and smiled at the new Genin. His smile faltered when he saw Naruto with his bruises, but a look at Iruka and Naruto was grinning again, as if nothing happened. The teacher smiled then looked at the rest of the class.

"I'm so proud that all of you were able to pass and are now one more step to achieving your goals" he waited for the kids to calm down before he continued "I want to be one of the first people to wish you luck in your future and I hope all of you achieve whatever you set your mind too"

Most of the class gave Iruka grateful smiles. None of them smiled more than Naruto, whose smile turned into a full blown grin. He felt like the scarred teacher was talking directly to him.

"Now" he picked up the clipboard that he walked in with "I won't keep you all waiting any longer. Let's get to the teams, shall we?" the class cheered.

"Alright" Iruka looked down at the clipboard "Team 1 is…"

* * *

"That covers teams 1 to 6" the teams that were made either nodded to each other or glared at one another. Obviously some enjoyed being with the people they were paired with well others weren't too happy (especially some of the girls, who couldn't be on Sasuke's team) "now let's get onto the rest of the teams" he looked down at the clipboard.

"Team 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki…" the blond boy perked up and could feel his heart beating fast waiting to hear who would be his team-mates.

'Please let it be Sakura-chan and don't let it be Sasuke' he thought crossing his fingers and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Kiba Inuzuka…" said boy looked up, he blinked in surprise.

Kiba was a brown haired boy that had red tattoo fangs on his cheeks. He wore a grey hoodie that had fur on the hood and on the ends of his sleeves. He also wore brown pants to match the outfit.

A white puppy sat on his desk looking at Iruka in equal amount of surprise as his master.

"And Ino Yamanaka" Iruka finished naming the members of Team Seven.

"What?!" Ino shouted jumping to her feet and looking like her world had just been doused in radioactive waste "why am I on a team with the Dobe and Dog boy?!"

"Yeah Iruka-sensei!" Kiba also stood up slamming his hands on the table in front of him "why must I be on a team with this Hussy-" Ino turned to glare at the boy.

"What you call me dog boy?!" she shouted but Kiba paid her no heed.

"And the Dobe?!" Kiba growled loudly "he'll only drag me down!"

"Why don't you try saying that to my face, Dog boy!" Naruto jumped to his feet and waved a fist at Kiba with a tick mark on his forehead.

"I'll do more than say it to you face, Dobe!" Kiba shouted stepping from behind his desk to put the blond boy in his place. He was stopped by a new shout, though.

"ALL THREE OF YOU SIT DOWN AND SHUT-UP!" Iruka used his Big Head Jutsu to make the three sit in the seats with sweat accumulating on their foreheads.

"I'm not the one who picked them, the Third Hokage did. So if you have a problem go talk to him" he said glaring at the three "I better not hear another complaint about the teams" he looked at the rest of the class "that goes for the rest of you as well" the others nodded fearfully.

"Good. Now where was I?" Iruka looked down at the clipboard again "Ah yes…Team 8 is Sakura Haruno…" the pink haired girl did what Naruto did earlier and prayed that she would be on Sasuke's team.

"Shikamaru Nara…" the boy raised his head enough to look at Iruka and mumble something before going back to sleep.

'That's not so bad' Sakura thought in relief 'at least Shikamaru will sleep majority of the time. Which means that it will basically just be me and Sasuke-kun' Sakura went off into dream land, where she and Sasuke were married and had a baby 'her name has gotta be Sarada…yeah, Sarada Uchiha'

"And Shino Aburame"

That's when all of Sakura's daydreaming came to a screeching halt and all her future plans broke like glass.

The pink haired girl was about to jump up and complain, but a look from Iruka made her sit down again and keep her complaints to herself.

Shino just adjusted his glasses but didn't say anything. Shino wore a pale green jacket that was buttoned all the way to the top with the collar covering his lower face. He wore brown pants to match the jacket. He also wore black glasses and his hair stood up like a bush.

The scarred Chunin nodded then returned to his list, but by now everybody knew who were on the last team together and it didn't sit well with Sasuke's fangirls.

"And finally Team 10 will be Choji Akimichi…" the big boned boy was saddened at the fact that he wasn't on a team with his long time best friend Shikamaru but he wasn't going to complain, they could always hangout when they're not on missions.

Choji was a large boy that wore a peach coloured top that had a symbol on the front that represented his clan. He also wore a green coloured jacket and a scarf around his neck. He wore brown pants and bandages around his hands. To top off his outfit he had on a bandanna that had two holes in it to allow some of his hair to stick out and red swirls on either cheek.

"Sasuke Uchiha…" the Uchiha just grunted to show that he had heard Iruka.

"And Hinata Hyuga" the Hyuga girl was trying to make herself seem as small as she could. She couldn't handle all the hate that was being directed at her from the rest of the females in the class.

Hinata was a fairly small girl that had indigo hair that was short with a point to the back. She wore a pale peach coloured jacket that had a hoodie and had fur on the bottom. She also had on blue pants to match the jacket.

She kept her pale white eyes shut to keep from angering the other girls even more.

"Those are the teams" Iruka put the clipboard on the table behind him "you all get a break now and then your senseis will come to pick you up afterwards. I advise using this time to get to know your team-mates and start building some trust" Iruka bowed his head "once again. It was nice being able to teach all of you and I hope to see you in the future, not as students but as comrades"

With that the scarred Chunin left the class.

* * *

The newly formed Team 7 sat on the roof of a building that was located outside the academy, that building was mainly used as storage for training equipment, but let's not get into that right now.

The members of Team 7 refused to talk to one another, let alone look at one another with anything but a glare or a sneer.

The only reason that they were in the same vicinity with one another was because Iruka had ordered them too. The scarred Chunin had returned to the class room after a few minutes to fetch something that he had forgotten in his desk.

When he had entered Iruka noticed that Team 7 was still there and weren't talking. So the man ordered them to go out and get to know one another. The three wanted to complain that getting to know one another was far from their minds, however Iruka wasn't taking no for an answer.

So here the three were sitting on opposite ends of the roof glaring at one another.

Kiba was eating Yakisoba bread (A/N: I think they have that. If not…meh) well his puppy Akamaru was enjoying a bone that his master gave him.

Ino was nibbling on a salary stick. The minute she pulled that out she was on the receiving end of questioning looks from her team-mates. However one glare from the girl and they dropped any questions they had.

Naruto was the only one that wasn't eating anything at the moment and sat with a pout on his lips.

"Why'd I have to get stuck with them?" Naruto grumbled to himself but Kiba heard him.

"What was that Dobe?" the Inuzuka narrowed his eyes at the bond male.

"I said, why I had to be stuck with you two?!" Naruto said unnecessarily loud.

"It's not like I wanted to be on your team anyway, loser!" Kiba shot back after he finished off his Yakisoba bread.

"Like anyone would want to be on your team" Naruto scoffed "who would want to constantly have to smell dog everyday"

"Yip" Akamaru barked at Naruto in a very unfriendly manner. Kiba petted the puppy on top of his head.

"Akamaru's right" Kiba smirked "Who would want to be on your team either, you're loud and obnoxious" his smirk turned into a frown "and I wash Akamaru everyday just so you know"

"I wasn't talking about Akamaru" Now it was Naruto's turn to smirk. That infuriated Kiba to no end.

"Will you two shut-up!" Ino shouted tick marks all over her forehead. She was trying to ignore the two but their constant bickering was getting on her nerves "No girl would ever want to be on either of your teams!"

The Yamanaka turned around so she wouldn't have to look at the two anymore and looked towards the academy building, which was also the Hokage tower.

Now Kiba and Naruto's irritation was directed at their female team-mate.

*Tsk* Kiba made a clicking sound with his tongue "Like any guy wants to be on your team. You'd probably annoy the hell out of them with your _Sasuke this _and _Sasuke that_ talk"

"Yeah!" Naruto said in agreement "Why couldn't it have been Sakura-chan instead of you. At least then I'd actually enjoy this team, even if dog breath was here"

The two waited to her Ino's response but the girl was oddly silent. The two boys raised their brows in confusion this wasn't like the Yamanaka, who always had something to say.

They heard the girl sigh dreamily and it momentarily threw them for a loop before they realized who they heard that kind of sigh come from.

'Sasuke/Bastard' the two thought at the same time and walked over to where Ino was standing. They looked over the railing to see that their assumption was correct. They could see the last Uchiha leaning with his back against a window eating a tomato.

"Of course" Kiba sighed in annoyance and turned his back so he didn't have to look at the black haired boy anymore "I shouldn't be surprised that the only way to shut Ino up was to dangle Sasuke in her face" he scoffed "at least we can agree that he's a bona fide asshole" he looked over to where Naruto was previously standing but the boy was gone.

"What the hell is he doing?" Kiba heard Ino say and looked over to see what she was witnessing. The Inuzuka saw Naruto on the roof outside the window where Sasuke was.

Naruto looked left then right before he tackled Sasuke through the open window. When Naruto tackled Sasuke the shutter that was open fell down and obstructed the two others view.

"Naruto! If you hurt Sasuke-kun again I'm gonna beat you so bad they'll have to stitch you back together!" Ino shouted to the closed shutter, the sound of a scuffle was coming from.

After that shout the sounds stopped and the shutter opened. Kiba and Ino weren't really surprised to see Sasuke jump out with his hands in his pockets. The Uchiha looked at the two and smirked at them before he jumped away.

"I knew Naruto wouldn't be able to stand up to Sasuke-kun!" Ino cheered "that loser got what he deserved!"

Kiba squinted at the open window. He could see something that was wriggling inside and the smell that the person had wasn't that of Naruto.

"Ino" he said breaking the girl from her monolog about how cool Sasuke was.

"What is it?" she asked with a frown looking at her team-mate.

"Take a closer look at who is inside that room" Kiba said making Ino look at him like he was crazy.

"Why? It's obviously Naruto" the boy just sighed in annoyance as he walked to the other side of the building to see where the Sasuke had gone to.

"Just look" was all he said before he spotted the Sasuke talking to Sakura.

Ino gave Kiba one more look before she looked closer into the room, she gasped at what she saw. There was the real Sasuke Uchiha tied up and gagged.

'How did…' the Yamanaka ran over to where Kiba was standing to see what Naruto was doing disguised as Sasuke. She wanted to shout when she saw the disguised boy about to kiss Sakura, however Kiba put a hand over her mouth and made a shushing sound.

The two watched as the two were about to lock lips. Then all of a sudden Naruto/Sasuke clutched his stomach and ran away.

* * *

**Once again I would like to say that I'm sorry for the confusion :'(. I hope the extra chapter will make up for that!**


	2. Trouble in paradise

**Chapter 2: Trouble in paradise**

"You're such a loser" Kiba snickered at Naruto, who refused to look at the other boy.

"Shut-up Dog Boy" Naruto growled in annoyance as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Seriously" Kiba said with a snort "you almost got the girl you like to kiss you and you run away?"

Naruto had a plan that he had formed the minute he saw Sasuke through the window. It involved him, Sasuke, rope, a gag and Sakura. At least he got the first four right, but the last one is where he messed up.

For you see Naruto had tried to score a kiss from Sakura, as well as see what she thought about him. What he didn't count on was the milk he had had that morning to come and bite him in the ass (almost literally).

It appears that the milk Naruto had consumed that morning was way past its expiration date and that same milk choose to do the tango and the tap dance when he was about to kiss the girl of his dreams.

So as to not embarrass himself in front of Sakura the boy _kindly_ excused himself to go to the toilet.

When he was safe the Uzumaki went back to where Sakura was to try the lines that he tried on her as Sasuke, it seemed like Sakura enjoyed hearing them. Unfortunately the girl was gone by the time he got back.

So he cut his loses short and went back to class, since the time that was allocated for the break was over. Along the way he caught up with his team-mates.

So here Naruto was, on the receiving end of Kiba's teasing. It didn't help that his other team-mate was glaring at him like he was the scorn of the earth…he got enough of that from people when he walked down the street.

The three entered the classroom and noticed that it was only them, Team Ten and a bearded Jounin.

"Team Seven?" the Jounin asked when he saw the three enter.

The Jounin wore the standard Jounin outfit with the sleeves rolled up and bangles on his wrists. He wore a sash around his waist with the kanji for fire on it. He had spikey hair that led into a beard. In his mouth was a lit cigarette.

The three Genin nodded their heads to the man's question. Asuma nodded his head and took the cigarette out of his mouth and exhaled smoke.

"Follow me" he said before walking towards the door where the Genin were standing. The three made way when he got close to them before following after the Jounin.

* * *

The three Genin sat down in front of the Jounin, who remained standing, with his hands in his pockets.

"So…" Asuma scratched the back of his head well he closed his eyes "I guess I'm your Jounin sensei" he opened his eyes to look off to the side "…for now I guess"

The Genin looked between each other with confused looks; of course they heard the bearded Jounin mumble that last part. Before they could question him on that last part Asuma continued talking.

"Why don't we get to know one another?" he leaned against the tree behind him "I'll go first" Asuma wanted to start so that they wouldn't be able to question him on his last statement.

"My names Asuma Sarutobi" he started "my likes are a good smoke…" that got him disapproving looks from Ino and Kiba, but he ignored the looks "a game of Shogi and sometimes just enjoying a little downtime. My dislikes are being told that my smoking is bad for my health" as if to prove his point Asuma blew out a puff of smoke "those that purposely harm the weak and traitors. My hobby is playing Shogi" Asuma tapped some of the ash off his cigarette "my dream is to one day find someone to give me a challenge in Shogi and have a family"

Asuma looked towards the Genin and gave them a grin "that's all for me. So why don't you go next" he pointed to Ino "ladies first after all" Ino rolled her eyes.

"What a gentleman" she mumbled before clearing her throat "My name's Ino Yamanaka. My likes include flower arrangement, hanging out with my friends and Sasuke-kun" she sighed dreamily, Kiba and Naruto sighed in annoyance at that part "my dislikes are people that call me Pig and since we're on that note I especially can't stand Billboard Brow, I also dislike those who pick on others for no reason. My hobby is shopping. My dream is to become Sasuke-kun's bride and a respectable Kunoichi"

'At least she's not completely Sasuke crazy' the three males thought with a sweat drop.

"Next up is the one with the puppy" Kiba nodded his head and petted Akamaru, who was sitting in front of him.

"My names Kiba Inuzuka" the boy grinned "My likes include Akamaru, dogs and learning about new breeds of dogs" Naruto and Ino made an amused snort "my dislikes are those that abuse dogs and those that abandon their friends. My hobby is taking walks with Akamaru and my dream is to become the next head of the Inuzuka clan"

Asuma nodded his head. This one had his head in the right place, but he obviously had a problem with his team-mates and vice-versa, but Asuma would make sure that they learn the true essence of teamwork.

"Finally we have our resident prankster" he grinned at Naruto, who looked very surprised.

"How do you know about me?!" he shouted, forgetting that he wasn't very subtle about his pranks. Even Kiba and Ino had to laugh at the blond boy's forgetfulness.

"Besides the constant people complaining?" asked Asuma with a joking tone making Naruto blush slightly "There's also the fact that pops always talks about you" Naruto looked at the Jounin with a confused look.

"Pops?" he asked but Asuma waved him off.

"Later" he said snuffing out the cigarette and reaching for a new one that he lit up the minute it replaced the position of its fallen comrade "let's finish introductions" Naruto looked like he wanted to push his questioning but decided against it.

"Okay. My names Naruto Uzumaki" he grinned at Asuma and readjusted his headband "My likes include Ramen, trying new types of ramen and training. My dislikes are the three minutes I have to wait for Ramen to warm up and Sasuke-teme" Ino's eye twitched but she didn't say anything because her sensei gave her a look not to interrupt "my hobbies are pulling pranks and…er…I'd rather keep the other one to myself for now thanks" the blond boy readjusted his headband with a sheepish grin.

Kiba and Ino looked at Naruto with surprised looks. Ever since they knew the blond boy he would always say what was on his mind, so it was weird to hear that he didn't want to tell them something about himself.

Asuma nodded his head in understanding "I understand, tell us whenever you're ready" Naruto grinned at the Jounin. He liked this guy, he was cool, just like the old man…

"Before I say what my dream is can I ask you a question?" Naruto scratched the back of his head "Please?"

Asuma raised a brow. He was sure that he said all questions had to wait till afterwards, but the pleading look Naruto gave him made Asuma sigh "Sure, go ahead"

"Are you the Old Man's son?" Naruto asked, confusing Kiba and Ino and slightly shocking Asuma.

"Old Man?" Ino asked in confusion looking to Kiba to see if he knew, but the brown haired boy shrugged, showing that he had no idea.

"I'm surprised you figured that out Naruto" Asuma gave a short chuckle "not many know of pop's relationship, because many only know him by his titles"

"You're just like him, ya know?" Naruto grinned "Oh yeah, let me get back to my introduction...ummm, where was I? Oh yeah! My dream…" the boy's grin got even bigger and his team-mate's got annoyed looks on their faces "My dream is to become the best Hokage there is, so that everyone can finally respect me!"

Kiba and Ino were about to shut down Naruto's dream but Asuma could see their plan and quickly shut it down.

"Alright" he clapped his hands making Kiba and Ino shut their mouths "I'm gonna destroy your hopes right now. You're not officially Genin"

Asuma counted in his head how long it would take for his students to react to the news bomb that he had just dropped on them.

"WHAT?!" the three yelled actually shocking Asuma at the intensity that their voices together created.

'Huh, I might have just gone partially deaf…' Asuma dug his pinkie into his ear "What I mean is that the exam the three of you took was to weed out those that aren't fit to become Genin" the Jounin knocked some ash off his cigarette "this test that I'm talking about is one that will decide if you three have what it takes to proudly wear those headbands and survive in the outside world" he sighed "the way this works is I give you a test of my choosing and if you pass my expectations I can say that Team 7 is an official team and will begin missions. Fail my expectations and I have every right to take those headbands away from you and send you back to the academy to try again"

All three Genin grabbed their headbands out of reflex, like Asuma was going to take them away now.

"Statistically speaking only 30% of the passing Genin become full-fledged Genin" Asuma blew out some smoke "that means only 3 teams can pass" he looked at the scared faces of Team 7 "now I have one question for you three. Do you want to have your test now or do you want to have the test tomorrow morning?"

The three Genin looked between each other trying to figure out if taking the test now would be better than taking the test tomorrow. It was a gamble that was based upon one question:

Were they ready for this test?

"We'll take it tomorrow morning" said Ino before either of her team-mates could say anything "yeah, tomorrow morning. At least let us prepare a little"

Asuma raised a brow but nodded his head "Alright. Just make sure you three are here tomorrow morning at 9 A.M sharp. Don't be late and be sure to have a hearty breakfast"

With that Asuma bid them farewell and walked towards the entrance of the training ground they had been sitting in.

The three sat in the empty field trying to process the information they were left with. The fact that they could potentially fail didn't sit well with them, none more than Naruto.

'If I'm sent back to the academy I might not ever become Hokage, even with the Shadow Clone Jutsu' he grabbed his hair 'who would want a Hokage that can't even become a Genin and after beating a Chunin?!' he sighed after a minute and let his arms drop 'If I'm gonna stand up to Asuma-sensei's standards I gotta train enough to prepare for tomorrow'

He lifted his head to see his two team-mates walking towards the entrance of the training ground where their sensei had just gone. A panicked feeling overcame Naruto, because his training needed to involve a partner.

"Hey guys, wait up!" he called out jumping to his feet and racing over to the two, who stopped when he called to them.

"What is it Dobe?" Kiba asked in an impatient tone "I gotta go get ready so I can beat Asuma-sensei's test" Ino nodded her head.

"Yeah" she said "I plan on actually passing. Sasuke-kun won't want to be with someone who didn't even pass a test to become a Genin"

"That's what I wanted to talk about" Naruto grinned at them "I was thinking we could train together and come up with ways to beat Asuma-sensei" he held his fist out "what do you say?"

"No" the two flat-out said, throwing Naruto for a loop and making him drop his fist.

"What, why?" he asked. The two looked at him like he was crazy.

"Why would we waste our time training with you?" Kiba frowned "I have a whole clan that can help me train. So I ask again, why would I train with you?" he motioned to Ino "even this Hussy has a clan to train her"

Ino frowned at Kiba but let the comment slide, he was kind of making their point. She turned back to Naruto and flipped her hair.

"Why would we want to train with the Dobe of the class that can't even make a single decent clone when we have tons of other people to train us and actually help us improve" now it was Naruto's turn to frown.

"Oi, I can make clones now!" he jabbed a thumb into his chest "in fact I can make a whole bunch of them. Thanks to this awesome new Jutsu I learnt last night"

"So what?" Kiba scoffed well crossing his arms "you can know all the Jutsus in the whole damn village, it won't change the fact that you're the Dead-last loser"

Tick marks appeared on Naruto's head. Why were they being so stubborn about this? All he wanted to do was train as a team, even HE knew that a Genin alone can't stand up to a Jounin, no matter how perverted they may be (*Cough* Ebisu *Cough*).

"Fine! I don't need your help!" he shouted at them and turned around "I'll just train on my own and you'll see tomorrow how I beat Asuma-sensei all by myself!"

"Yeah" Ino rolled her eyes "keep deluding yourself there Naruto-Baka" she turned around and continued on her trek to exit the training ground.

"I bet you'll be the first one to get his ass kicked tomorrow anyway" was Kiba's parting words as he left the training ground.

When it was only Naruto left in the training ground the boy huffed in annoyance.

"I don't need them…" he said making a cross hand seal.

**Shadow Clone Jutsu**

The blond was now surrounded by twelve clones of himself. He pulled out a kunai, which his clones copied.

"…I'm perfectly fine on my own…" he mumbled "always have been always will be"

With that the Genin took off towards one of his clones, who ran at him as well.

As the blond boy fought, he failed to notice the person standing on a branch watching him fight.

The person blew out some smoke with a sigh before he vanished into smoke and leaves.

* * *

The next morning Kiba and Ino caught each other at the village entrance. They had come from their respective homes after some well-deserved training from their parents. They had also had a good night's rest and were now ready to face the test their Sensei was planning to give them today.

The two didn't even acknowledge each-others presence and walked out of the gate towards the same training ground that they were in yesterday.

The two Genin didn't think that they were as well prepared as their parents had told them they were last night, but the encouragement was still nice. The only problem the two had was Naruto.

He was one of the reasons that made them worry about today. Not that he may fail, for all they cared the boy could go back to the Academy, but if he got in their way he would drag them down with him.

The two entered the training grounds and noticed that there was someone lying on the ground in the middle of the training ground. It was their third team-mate.

Naruto was snoring well he lay sprawled out on the floor. He had some dirt marks on his clothes, but this wasn't the first time that the two saw the Uzumaki looking so dishevelled. There were times that he would come into class late and looking like he did now.

"Oi" Ino toed Naruto with her foot with a disgusted look on her face "get up Naruto-baka"

The boy groaned and opened his eyes. He sat up and rubbed his eyes to get the sand out of his eyes. When his eyes were free from the sand that the Sandman had doused him with last night the Uzumaki stretched with a yawn. He looked up at the person that woke him up and yawned again.

"Morning Ino, Kiba" he said in a tired tone "what are you doing in my room?" his two team-mates looked at him like he lost his mind.

"You're in the training ground, idiot" Kiba said. Naruto look around and finally noticed that he was, in fact, in the training ground.

"Oh…I knew that" he said grinning at the two well he got up and stretched his back "Where's Asuma-sensei?"

As if summoned the bearded Jounin appeared on Naruto's other side in a burst of smoke and leaves. The Jounin exhaled some smoke before he greeted the three.

"Morning" he said "I see that the three of you follow orders to the T" Asuma nodded his head "Good. I wouldn't want students like a certain silver haired Jounin I know" he reached into his pocket and withdrew a clock that he placed on a stump, which was next to him.

"Now" he stretched his arms "let's get to the test" the Jounin reached into his pocket and withdrew a packet of cigarette "Your test is simple: All you have to do is retrieve this pack of cigarettes from me before the timer goes off, which will go off after 12" he tucked the packet into the front pocket of his Jounin vest "failure to retrieve the packet will mean that I will take your headbands and send you back to the academy"

The three gulped and got into ready stances. All of them had their reasons not to lose here and one of those reasons is: not wanting to be sent back to the academy.

"On the count of 3 you can come at me however you want, use whatever trick is at your disposal to try and retrieve the packet" Asuma kept his eyes on the Genin

"1…" some sweat dropped down Ino's forehead.

"2…" Kiba tightened his fists and Naruto gulped.

"3!" the Genin all scattered to hide in the surrounding foliage.

Asuma looked around at the empty area and saw that the three were fairly good at concealing their presence.

'Let's see what they can do' the bearded Jounin thought as he snuffed out the rest of his finished cigarette and light a new one.

* * *

Asuma stood in the middle of the training ground waiting for some form of attack from the Genin team he was tasked to test.

"Stealth" he spoke loud enough for the hidden Genin to hear him. Yes, he knew where they were hiding "it's a ninja's most treasured tool in this world. A Ninja that cannot master stealth is as good as dead. At least you three understand that about being a Genin"

Asuma raised a brow when he heard the sound of someone exiting a bush. He wasn't that surprised to see the person that was stand in front of him was Naruto, looking very confident with himself.

"You…just basically spat on what I just said, you know that?" Asuma said with a sweat drop. Naruto put his fists on his hips and grinning so wide he was squinting.

"Sensei" he said pointing at Asuma "I'm here to prove to you that I'm worthy to wear this headband!" he pointed at the headband around his forehead.

"Oh?" Asuma blew out some smoke "well come on then. Show me what you got"

Naruto's grin turned into a smirk as put his hands into the seal he had used yesterday to train. The blond boy's team-mates were repeatedly telling themselves not to sigh at their team-mates stupidity.

**Shadow Clone Jutsu!**

Now the two were telling themselves not to gasp at what they saw. Naruto Uzumaki, the dead-last drop out of their graduating class who couldn't even produce a decent clone, had created a whole bunch of copies of himself and none looked like they were dying.

"Well this is a surprise" said Asuma blowing out some smoke "I heard that you had actually failed your test because you failed at making a single clone. Yet here you are with a whole bunch of clones" the Jounin had an unimpressed look on his face "but what good are illusions if the user can't fight?"

"I'll show you what I'm made of" said one of the clones.

"I'll take that packet from you…" said another clone.

"And you'll have no choice but to pass me!" said one more clone punching his left hand with is right "Get him!" with that all the clones descended upon Asuma in an effort to take the pack cigarettes from him.

Naruto's team-mates watched in amazement as the clones he had produced were actually trading blows with Asuma which meant that they were real!

'How did the Dobe do that?!' the two thought in amazement watching their team-mate and his clones fight their sensei, who didn't even look like he was breaking a sweat.

* * *

Asuma dodged a punch from one clone and grabbed the out stretched arm. The Jounin then proceeded to fling the clone at a few clones that were running at him from behind, hoping to surprise attack him.

The clones turned into smoke from the impact. The sudden smoke screen allowed 5 clones to try and surprise Asuma. However the Jounin was ready for the attack and grabbed one of the clones, who tried to cut his pocket with a kunai. Asuma spun around and threw that clone into another clone well he also threw the kunai at the one next to it.

The three clones turned into smoke and their brethren didn't allow the sacrifice to be in vain. The two clones remaining of the five tried to attack Asuma from either side.

The Jounin jumped up at the last minute and grabbed both clones on top of their heads. He then proceeded to push the two into one another making them head-butt one another.

A smoke cloud surrounded Asuma obscuring him from sight. The Jounin walked out of the cloud with a bored look on his face. The minute he left the cover that the cloud provided he was faced with a flying Naruto heading towards him head first.

Asuma dodged the flying clone by ducking but he didn't count on another clone sliding along the ground and kicking Asuma in the gut. The Jounin grunted at the pain and winced. But he recovered quickly enough to catch the punch thrown at him from the same clone.

The bearded Jounin lifted the clone up by the fist and slammed him on the ground behind him. The clone gasped in pain but didn't turn into smoke. It was the real Naruto. The area was quiet save for the laboured panting from Naruto on the ground. Asuma had defeated all of his clones and he didn't look like he broke a sweat.

"I gotta admit" Asuma blew some smoke into Naruto's face making the blond boy wave his hand to blow the smoke away "to have mastered that Jutsu in a night is very impressive, but like I said what good is a clone if the original is subpar in their fighting ability?"

Naruto could barely form any words at the moment so he settled on glaring hot daggers at his sensei.

**Fang over Fang**

Two blurs shot out of the bushes toward Asuma, who grabbed Naruto and dodged to the side. The two tornados slammed into the area where Asuma had been standing. The tornados kicked up dust as they dug into the ground.

When the dust settled Kiba and Akamaru stood there with Kiba in his family's Taijutsu style and Akamaru bearing his teeth at Asuma.

The Jounin placed a worn out looking Naruto against a tree and turned to face his second Genin with as much enthusiasm as when he fought Naruto.

"Do you think that you're going to do better than your team-mate who, might I add, actually was able to land a solid blow on me" Kiba growled at Asuma.

"Don't compare me to him" he pointed to the blond under the shade of the tree "I'm much better than him!"

Asuma raised a brow and knocked some ash off his cigarette "then tell me, did you know that if it wasn't for Naruto _you_ would be the dead-last?" Kiba's winced and his stance faulted slightly.

That was all it took for Asuma to use a **Kawarimi **and exchange places with the dog lover. It was good thing too because Ino had used her family's famous **Mind Transfer Jutsu** to take over Asuma's body.

Ino's soul slammed into Kiba's unaware body and took over confusing the soul of the blond girl inhabiting Kiba's body now. A fist was buried in Kiba's gut and that caused Ino's soul to eject itself from the new host and return to its original one.

Ino winced at the phantom pain of having Asuma punch the body her soul had inhabited. A side effect of her family's Jutsu.

Ino didn't have very long to get her bearings because Asuma appeared next to her and placed his hand on back. That was all it took for Ino to feel like her body suddenly weighed a ton.

* * *

Asuma stood in front of the Genin of Team Seven with a disappointed look on his face. You could tell how disappointed he was because he wasn't smoking.

"Do you know how long it took me to render all of you helpless?" the three refused to answer his question out of guilt "10 minutes. It took me 10 minutes to beat your whole team" the Jounin sighed in annoyance "let's go over why you three were unable to do anything, to so much as _scrape_ the pocket where your goal lay.

"First of all, Kiba" the browned haired boy refused to look at his sensei "you're too easy to rile up. One sentence and you're agitated enough that your enemy will be able to take full advantage of you. Just like I did"

The Inuzuka growled in annoyance but didn't say anything.

"Next is Ino" the girl winced "You have little to no tactics when it comes to catching the enemy off guard. Do you know what the downside to your family's Jutsu is? Your body is vulnerable well it is soul-less. I could very well have held your body hostage"

The Yamanaka just kept her eyes locked onto the ground in front of her.

"Lastly is Naruto" the blond boy just glared at Asuma with tired eyes "I got only one thing to ask you" Asuma crouched so he was looking the boy in the eyes "did you eat anything since yesterday morning?" it was a sincere question but the serious look in Asuma's eyes spoke volumes.

Ino and Kiba's heads whipped towards Naruto in shock. The boy had had nothing to eat, even though their sensei told them to have something to eat that morning? What made it worse was the fact that he hadn't eaten since _yesterday morning_.

Asuma sighed tiredly "and I'm guessing you only got 2 hours sleep as well" he guessed.

Naruto turn his head so that he wouldn't have to look his sensei or his team-mates in the eyes. Asuma hung his head and groaned.

"You know what?" he stood up and got a cigarette from the packet that the team was supposed to retrieve from him "I'm going give you three one more shot" the three looked at him with hopeful looks on their faces "but if you don't realise what the purpose of this test is when it's over I'm not gonna hesitate to fail you" the three gulped at the threatening tone that Asuma used.

The Jounin looked towards Naruto, who looked like all hell had been on his back and closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Naruto" the blond opened his half-lidded eyes "I'm going to let you go and have something to eat. Just be back here before 12" Naruto blinked in surprise and grinned at the man.

"Thanks Asuma-sensei!" his face dropped after he had a thought "but I don't have any money on me" the jounin reached into his pocket and took out a wad of cash, which he placed in Naruto's hand.

"Here. That should cover the cost of at least 3 bowls of ramen" Naruto looked at his sensei with stars in his eyes.

"Wow! Thanks Asuma-sensei!" the blond boy got to his feet before running out of the training ground.

When Naruto was out of ear shot the man turned to the remaining members of Team 7 and a disappointed look appeared on his face. The two felt like they wanted to sink into the earth to escape the look their sensei was giving them.

"I'm not done with you two" he crossed his arms "I didn't want to say this in front of Naruto but the main thing that I have a problem with is your blatant disrespect for your team-mate" the two looked confused and that made Asuma even more disappointed.

"Do you two know how hypocritical you are being in your treatment to Naruto? Both of you talk about how you dislike people who pick on others for no reason-" Ino avoided eye contact "and those that abandon their friends" Kiba gritted his teeth at having his own words thrown into his face.

"I'm going let you two in on a little secret. Naruto actually did the right thing to reach out to you two for help. It could have helped you two to avoid having this lecture. Yet you two blew him off and shoved the one thing in his face that is sensitive to Naruto" at their confused looks Asuma blew smoke into their faces annoying them both.

"You threw the fact that you two have family to help you train, into his face" Ino's eyes widened in shock and she actually felt her heart break a little "Naruto has had to rely on himself to train or to figure out things about life with little to no guidance" Kiba clenched his fists at the what Asuma was telling him, it was all true and he knew it. Even Akamaru was depressed.

"He won't admit it because he's stubborn, but Naruto wasn't just reaching out to you two to help you guys get ready for this test. No, he actually wanted your help with his training so he wouldn't drag either of you down, because Naruto knows what it's like to be at the bottom looking up" Asuma dropped the finished cigarette on the ground and stomped on it.

"So get your act together and put some faith in someone else besides yourselves"

* * *

**Next Chapter coming up!**


	3. Teamwork, Ramen and Cigarettes

**Chapter 3: Teamwork, Ramen and a Packet of Cigarettes**

"Oh man!" Naruto sighed happily "Asuma-sensei really is like Old man Hokage" he grinned walking towards the training ground with his hands behind his head.

'I hope I can at least get that packet of cigarettes' the blond boy sighed 'then we can pass and I'll be one step closer to become Hokage!'

"Now that my Ramen tank is full I can give it a 1000 percent! Dattebayo!" the blond boy shouted as entered the training ground and held his fist to the sky with a confident grin.

"You seem full of life" Asuma chuckled when he saw his student shout out his signature catch phrase. Naruto grinned at the older male. This guy was gaining entry into Naruto's good books that was for sure.

Naruto looked over to his team-mates, who were unusually quiet. They also looked like something was bothering them. The grin vanished to be replaced with a confused look.

"Er…are you guys okay?" the two refused to make eye contact with the blond boy. Naruto looked towards Asuma for answers but the Jounin just blew out a cloud of smoke.

"Don't worry about them. They're just thinking about something I told them when you left. Nothing to concern yourself with" Naruto wanted to argue, but let it go. If it got those two to stop shouting then by all means go ahead and tell them whatever you want.

"Okay" Naruto let his arms drop "so Asuma-sensei can we start?" he grinned "I feel ten times better"

Asuma sighed with a smile, give the boy some Ramen and he feels like he can take on the world.

"Sure" he walked over to the clock that was still sitting on the stump "the same rules apply and I expect someone to take the pack of Cigarettes, only this time I'll only be giving you an hour" the three nodded. It may have been a shorter amount of time than before but the fact they were getting a second chance to complete the test outweighed the sudden change in time allocated.

After all, beggars can't be choosers.

"3…2…1…GO!" Naruto was about to jump away and actually try a stealthy approach this time, but he was halted by two people hooking their arms under his. Naruto looked on either side of him and saw that those two people were his team-mates.

"Wha-" that was all he got out before the two jumped away from Asuma, who stood in the clearing with a smile on his face.

'There's hope for this team yet' he thought as he lit another Cigarette and waited for his team to make their move.

* * *

Naruto felt himself being let down by his two team-mates who had serious looks on their faces.

"What's gotten into you two?" he asked in bewilderment. This new attitude that they had was sudden and confusing.

"Just…don't worry about it" said Kiba with a frown on his face. Now normally Naruto could tell when someone was annoyed because they were in his presence and that was the kind of feeling he got from his team-mates every time they spoke to him.

Now it seemed like they were annoyed at something else entirely.

"Is this about what Asuma-sensei spoke to you about?" Naruto asked tilting his head to the side. He wanted to find out what his team-mates and Sensei spoke about well he was gone, but the two would avoid eye contact with him.

"Naruto" Ino said making her blond counterpart look over to her "what we spoke to Asuma-sensei about doesn't matter right now, okay? All we need to focus on is passing this test"

Naruto wanted to pry deeper but the pleading look in Ino's eyes made him stop and nod his head in understanding "Alright Ino, let's think of a way to beat Asuma-sensei"

The two other team members of Team 7 nodded their heads with a relieved sigh. The less Naruto knew about what Asuma spoke to them about the better.

* * *

Asuma stood in the middle of an empty clearing that was located deeper in the training ground. He was still waiting for the three to make a move against him and they had been inactive for…Asuma glanced at the position of his shadow…about 30 minutes.

That didn't leave them with much time to still get the pack of cigarettes from him. Pity, he was sure that these three would actually bring some laughter to his life, especially the blond prankster.

Oh. There was the sound of someone moving in a bush.

"I can hear you, you know?" he spoke to the area where the noise originated from. The person in the bush cursed a soft string of curses. He wasn't surprised to see Naruto jump out, but he was disappointed when he noticed that his team-mates weren't even present.

"Are we doing this dance again Naruto?" Asuma raised a brow at his male blond student.

The boy huffed in annoyance "Well Dog boy and Ino didn't want to help me so I guess I'm a one man army now" Naruto made a cross hand seal "So let's get this show on the road" he said.

"One thing though" Asuma had to ask this question "how come they grabbed you and jumped away?" Naruto dropped his hand seal well an annoyed look found its way onto his face.

"Originally they wanted to work together, but we all had conflicting ideas on what we were going to do to beat you Asuma-sensei" Naruto reached into his kunai pouch and withdrew a kunai that had an explosive tag on it.

Asuma's eyes widened in shock and dived out of the way. Guess Naruto was more serious than he thought. If this is what the boy is like after bowls of Ramen then he's taking Ramen off of his meal plan.

The kunai struck a tree behind Asuma and the Jounin waited for the tag to explode. It was after he watched the tag for a few seconds that he then realised the tag was a dud. Asuma spun around in time to block a claw strike from his second student by grabbing his wrist. Kiba grunted as he brought his other hand up to strike the Jounin but Asuma was ready for that and blocked the attack the same way.

The bearded Jounin lifted his foot up and kicked Kiba off to the side. The boy grimaced at the pain but smirked as he landed on the ground.

"Now Akamaru!" he called and a white blur shot out from the bushes beside Asuma and latched onto his arm.

"Gah!" Asuma shouted in surprise, and a slight bit of pain. He quickly grabbed the small pup and tossed him over to Kiba, who quickly caught him.

Asuma heard the sound of something flying towards his back and spun around. He saw a giant Shuriken flying towards him. Asuma reacted in time to catch the flying projectile by the inner circle.

Asuma looked over and saw Ino with a worried look on her face. He made to toss the shuriken back at her (obviously he aimed to throw it so that the weapon would miss her) but he got a shock when the shuriken vanished and a set of arms wrapped around his neck in a sleeper hold.

The shuriken had been a disguised Naruto, who took advantage of Asuma's focus on Ino to catch the Jounin off guard by transforming back into himself. Asuma was about to reach up and grab hold of the boy but another set of hands grabbed his arms and pulled them back, well forcing Asuma to his knees by a knee in the back.

"Ino, do it now!" Naruto and Kiba shouted towards their third team-mate.

Asuma only had time to see Ino, with Akamaru standing guard in front of her, holding her family's Jutsu hand sign and calling out its name.

**Mind Transfer Jutsu**

* * *

Asuma opened his eyes and was greeted to accomplished looks from his students. Those looks were accompanied by Naruto holding the packet of cigarettes in his hands.

"Does this mean we passed Sensei?" Ino asked with a cheeky grin. Asuma sighed with a smile. These kids were a handful when they work together, but had Asuma really tried it was undeniable that they would most likely have failed…well not actually because they did pass, whether they got the packet or not.

Asuma stood up from his kneeling position, the position his body slumped into the minute Ino's soul exited.

"After a performance of teamwork like that it would be horrible of me to say you failed" Asuma chuckled and retrieved another packet from his pants pocket, throwing his students for a loop. Just how many packs of Cigarettes did Asuma have?

Naruto tossed the packet up and down well grinning at Asuma "I thought it revolved around teamwork" he said "There isn't a way in hell that we could have beaten you on our own"

"That might have been the smartest thing you've ever said Dobe" Kiba chuckled, even Ino giggled at what Kiba said. Naruto frowned in annoyance but after he saw the teasing looks on their face, he knew that Kiba was just making a joke.

It was surprising to see them acting friendly with him all of a sudden, but Naruto wasn't going look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I have an idea" they turned their attention to Asuma who reached into his pocket and withdrew a camera. He grinned at the three and waved the device back and forth "why don't we take a picture to commemorate the forming of team Seven?"

Naruto grinned at the Jounin and held his fist up, the one that still held the packet of cigarettes "Hell ya! Dattebayo!" he shouted in joy "this is bringing me one step closer to becoming Hokage!" Naruto pointed at Asuma, who was setting up the camera on a stump so they could take a group photo "tell the Old Man I'll be coming for that hat soon" Asuma chuckled as he adjusted the settings to take a picture in 30 seconds, enough time for them to get ready.

"Trust me Naruto, he would love to hand the job over to someone but you gotta prove yourself ready to be Hokage" Ino processed the information that she just got from her sensei and her eyes widened.

"Your dad is the Hokage?!" she shouted pointing at Asuma who took a position behind his Genin. Kiba's mouth dropped open and stared up at Asuma in shock.

"Guilty as charged" the man laughed in embarrassment "oh and we got 20 seconds before the camera goes off. So let's get ready" Ino started panicking and looked down at her clothes, which were slightly dirty.

"Wait! You can't take that picture! Everything about me is a mess after that test!" she said in a hurried tone and wanted to get away. She was stopped by an arm around her neck and someone pulling her close to them.

The Yamanaka looked over and saw that Naruto was the one to grab her. The blond boy hooked his arm over Kiba's shoulders and brought him close as well. The brown haired boy sighed in annoyance but accepted his fate and grinned at the camera. Even Akamaru was in the picture by sitting on Kiba's head.

"Come on Ino, smile" Naruto grinned at her before he looked towards the camera which started making a ticking sound "you always look pretty" that made Ino's face heat up.

The Yamanaka looked towards the camera not as panicked as before but a bit flustered now. She smiled at the camera but couldn't put the thought that a boy said she was pretty out of her head. It never happened before, trust her.

Asuma sighed, Naruto didn't know the effect saying that had on Ino 'he's too honest and naïve for his own good' he grinned at the camera and hunched down a bit so he could be in the picture.

Naruto held up a peace sign in both hands and made sure that if someone were to look at the picture they would see the first objective Team Seven accomplished together.

The final second ticked away and the camera went off, recording the time Team Seven became an official Team.

* * *

The newly formed team seven entered Naruto's favourite Ramen stand. Asuma said that he would treat them to a meal but they had to make a decision on where they wanted to eat. Kiba said that he was okay with anywhere so long as they had meat and allowed pets.

Ino suggested a place that focused on healthy food but Naruto and Kiba shut that idea down instantly. Naruto hated anything that even resembled healthy food and Kiba for his previous statement.

Naruto suggested Ichiraku's Ramen but this time Ino had a problem with that place. She started saying that ramen was filled with so much fatty ingredients and were bad for your health. That obviously set Naruto off on one of his 'why ramen is great' rants.

Ino and Kiba had to suffer this type of rant more than once well they were in the academy. Iruka and Naruto actually got in an argument in the middle of class on the type of ingredients that was bad for your health that was located in food.

Iruka, unfortunately, made reference to ramen and that instantly set Naruto off.

So it was safe to say that Ino instantly caved when Naruto started his rant. However she said that next time she got to choose the place they go to. Naruto agreed to that, maybe he could bring Ino onto the side of ramen.

"Hey old man!" Naruto called to the owner that was located at the back of the stand "I'm back and I brought you some new customers!"

The person that walked out from the back of the stand was definitely NOT an old man. The person was a brown haired girl whose hair went past her shoulders. She wore a white robe with her sleeves rolled up and she wore a blue apron and a bandana on her head.

The girl smiled when she saw Naruto "Hello Naruto-kun" she greeted warmly. She saw the four people that walked in with Naruto and smiled at them "Hello. Please come in and sit down. Any friends of Naruto-kun's are always welcome" she greeted them just as warmly as she greeted Naruto, only the greeting she gave Naruto had more familiarity in it.

Team Seven sat down on the stools. From left to right it was Asuma, Ino, Naruto and Kiba. Ayame noticed the puppy on Kiba's head and 'aww'ed at him.

"Can I pet him?" she asked Kiba, who blinked and looked up at Akamaru. The puppy looked down at his master and it seemed like the two were having a mental conversation.

"Er…Sure?" Kiba picked Akamaru off of his head and handed him over to Ayame. The brown haired waitress smiled at Akamaru.

"Aren't you just precious?" Ayame cooed at the pup, which yipped happily at her. If it wasn't apparent to Kiba before, it was now. This stall allowed pets.

"Hello Naruto" another voice spoke up from the back. This time the person that spoke was an actual fairly old man. The old man wore the same outfit as Ayame only he had on a white hat instead of a bandana "So? Does this mean you passed?" he asked.

The three Genin grinned at each other and Naruto reached into his pocket to retrieve the packet of cigarettes that had sealed both their victory and passing. The blond boy took the packet out and placed it on the table in front of him.

"It was a battle well fought!" Naruto had an accomplished look on his face "and the reward was well deserved!" Ino and Kiba nodded their heads with equal looks of accomplishment that their team-mate was sporting.

All of their accomplished looks turned into scared ones in a split second. The reason for that is the vicious aura that washed over them. The three were subjected to this kind of mental torture from Ayame.

The brown haired waitress was glaring daggers at the three. The three could feel that Ayame was contemplating something that was even worse than murder and the three knew that someone was going to be on the receiving end, but the question was 'who was the unfortunate bastard to be on the receiving end?'

"Oh?" even Akamaru was struggling to get out of Ayame's grasp. The brown haired girl let the puppy go so that he could run to his master "So who of you were the one to claim the prize?" she asked.

"Naruto!" Ino and Kiba shouted as they pointed to Naruto. The blond male looked at them like they had just thrown him under the bus. Well they kinda did.

"What?!" he shouted and wanted to make a comment about his team-mates betraying him but Ayame had already grabbed him by the ear and was leading him towards the entrance/exit of the Ramen stand "OUCH! Ayame-nee-chan!" he shouted and flayed his arms around.

Ayame had grabbed the pack of cancer sticks on her war path to berate Naruto for something that he didn't do…well he didn't exactly know what he did to deserve the girl's wrath.

The customers and owner watched as the blond boy vanished around the corner with Ayame. They kept watching the enterance for a few more moments until they decided to put the incident out of their heads, Kiba and Ino especially.

"So…what can I get you guys?" Teuchi asked with a sweat drop, which Asuma copied.

"I'll have some Sausage ramen" said the sensei of Team Seven ordered. Teuchi nodded and wrote down the man's order. He turned to Kiba and Ino.

"And for you two?" Ino looked up from the menu that was on the counter in front of her.

"Um…I'll have the avocado and cherry tomato ramen" she gave a smile to the Ramen chief. Her second team-mate stared at her like she had just ordered a round of poison for all of them to eat "What?" she asked.

"The hell did you just order?" he asked in a disgusted tone. Ino huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms.

"I'm on a diet you dumbass!" Ino shouted at the brown haired boy, who scoffed.

"Oh please. What person that calls themselves a ninja is on a _diet_?" Kiba almost spat out the word, him and the word diet did NOT go together. Like the boy would give up meat for some _grass_.

"What do you know?!" Ino shouted at the Inuzuka. Who glared at her, with the same kind of glare the Yamanaka was giving him at that moment.

"Enough to know that you're basically asking to get tired in the middle of a battle and kneel over in exhaustion" Ino frowned at Kiba. How dare he try and decide her fate like that? He doesn't know what it's like to stay in shape for the one you love.

She wanted to retort but Asuma beat her to it. However he wasn't taking her side, he was basically taking Kiba's side.

"He's right Ino" Asuma said as Kiba placed his order of beef ramen "If you continue dieting you will not only put yourself at risk but also the lives of your team-mates will be at risk" Ino looked at Asuma in confusion.

"But isn't it right to be fit Asuma-sensei?" she asked. Asuma sighed and massaged his temples, how he wished to have a smoke but he knew that Teuchi didn't look too kindly on smokers in his stand.

"There's a difference between being fit and starving yourself" said Asuma as he grabbed chopsticks and started twirling them to keep his mind occupied and off his cigarettes "If you eat nothing but fruits and vegetables for the rest of your life you're lacking the proteins to help your body grow"

"But if I start eating meat won't I get fat?" even Teuchi chuckled at that (Kiba out right started laughing, making Ino glare at him) "What?" Ino asked.

"Ino" Asuma patted the girl on top of her head, making the girl frown in annoyance, why did the Jounin want to mess up her hair more. It was already messy from the test that morning "as a Ninja you are always kept active and you burn through fat like there's no tomorrow. Trust me when I say that if you follow a proper training regime you'll not only look better than any other girl your age, but you'll also be much stronger, among other things, than them"

Ino stared at Asuma with eyes filled with wonder, why wasn't she told of this earlier? There was a small part of her brain that said that her father had actually said the same thing as Asuma. During that time, however, Ino choose to not listen to her father because she thought he just didn't understand her.

The fact her sensei was also telling her the same thing meant that there had to be some truth to it.

_"__You always look pretty"_

Ino blushed slightly when she remembered what Naruto had told her that morning. Maybe the diet really wasn't working.

"Baka…" the girl whispered under her breath as she started to eat the ramen that was put in front of her.

* * *

Naruto wobbled into the ramen stand with an exhausted look on his face and his eyes bloodshot.

The rest of Team Seven were surprised at Naruto's sudden change in appearance. Ayame walked in after the sick looking Naruto with an accomplished yet frustrated look on her face.

Naruto wobbled to his seat and fell into it and slumped forward. He didn't even glance at the ramen bowl that was next to his head, which was resting on the counter top.

"Er Naruto?" Ino had a very off put feeling at the aura that Naruto was emitting. No, that wasn't his aura; it was a smell that was drifting off of him. It was strange, different from the normal scent he gave off…it also smelt familiar.

Naruto turned his head towards the girl and sighed "I don't feel to good" he mumbled but that was enough for Ino and Kiba, who could also smell what Ino was smelling, to finally place what the scent was.

"Naruto…did you smoke?" Ino asked in a horrified tone. The blond boy turned his head so he was face to face with the table.

"Ayame-nee-chan forced me to smoke the whole packet to teach me a lesson about underage smoking" the boy said in a small voice "now I feel funny" he groaned.

"You should" Ayame huffed "that means that you're learning your lesson" Asuma glanced over at the boy then went back to his ramen.

"You poor fucking bastard" said Kiba patting Naruto on the shoulder.

The brown haired boy felt someone grab him on the shoulder and squeeze. He turned in fear, because of the evil aura that was connected to the hand, and came face to face with an annoyed looking Ayame.

"Naruto may be participating in underage smoking but that doesn't mean you can walk around with a filth mouth like that" she said and grabbed the boy by his ear and dragged him towards the kitchen, the Inuzuka kicking and screaming "let's wash that mouth out" the waitress gave an ominous laugh to accompany Kiba's screams of terror.

Ino was left feeling like she had just witnessed two murders and…it terrified her. Sleep would elude her that night.

* * *

The next day the members of Team Seven met up at the training ground they had their test in. Apparently that was their training ground from now on. Asuma had signed a form (he had told them) to state that that training ground was basically theirs and others had to check with him first if they could use it.

I was a legal rule that had dated back to the founding of Konoha, especially around the time Madara had abandoned the village. It was there so that most of the others wouldn't know the secret techniques that others were learning/being taught.

But it was just a precautionary measure.

Kiba was smacking his lips together, it was clear that the boy still had the sudsy taste in his mouth from the thorough cleaning that Ayame gave him.

Naruto on the other hand had a very irritated look on his face. It was a look that said 'talk to me and I can't be held responsible for what happens afterwards'. That was what put both Kiba and Ino off, so they decided to keep their distance for now.

"Alright team" Asuma said as he walked into the training ground smoking a cigarette. Naruto had turned his pissed look onto Asuma, but it was now laced with an interested look "we'll be starting missions that are befitting of Genin such as yourself" Asuma looked very pleased with himself when he said that, and it showed on his face.

"Does it have anything with us leaving this village?" Kiba asked their sensei, who looked up in thought. Asuma was just acting like he was thinking about Kiba's question but he obviously knew what the answer would be.

"You never know" the bearded Jounin had a cheeky grin on his face, a grin that didn't sit well with the Genin.

* * *

"What kind of crap is this?!" in a certain part of Konoha a brown haired Inuzuka was shouting at his sensei.

Why was Kiba shouting at Asuma early in the morning and after Asuma promised them a mission, something that every newly made Genin team would look forward too. That was simple, the mission that Asuma got for them…

Painting a fence

Naruto, Kiba and Ino were standing in front of a blank fence with paint buckets in their hands. Kiba and Naruto had shed their jackets so that they wouldn't get them dirty with paint. Ino really didn't want to paint a fence and potentially dirty her clothes, which costed a lot, so she was the one with the most reluctant face.

"Why are we painting a fence for a mission?!" shouted Kiba as he spun around to glare at his sensei, who was standing behind them with an amused look on his face. The three weren't very impressed by that look.

"All Genin have to go through this when they start out" Asuma blew out a cloud of smoke before he started talking again "so quit bitching and start painting" he couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the glare his Genin were sending him.

The three sent Asuma one more glare before they began to paint the bare fence. Well Kiba and Naruto were painting the fence well Ino was still standing in the same place with the paint brush and the paint bucket (still closed) in hand. Kiba looked back to see the girl standing dead still.

"Oi Ino" he called "you gonna help or what?"

Ino looked at Naruto, who was silently painting his portion of the fence. The blond boy dipped the paint brush into the paint bucket to continue his work. As Naruto pulled out the brush some paint splattered on his pants.

Seeing that was all it took for Ino to drop the paint brush and the bucket and hold her hands up like she had just been holding hot coal.

"Nope!" she shouted and shook her head "nope, nope, nope" she repeated "There is no way I'm gonna get my clothes dirty! Do you know how much this top costs?"

Ino would have continued her ranting but something was thrown onto her head and obstructed her view. The Yamanaka reached up and took the item off her head. The first thing that she noticed was the item was orange and that it was a jacket.

"Will you get to work now?" she looked over to Naruto, who still had an annoyed look on his face "I want to get done so that I can go home and sleep" he turned around and continued to paint the fence well he grumbled to himself.

The attitude that the Uzumaki had was unnerving his two team-mates, who actually let it show on their faces. So they decided to get on with the task that they were given. Least they bring upon Naruto's wrath (his new attitude actually scared them).

Ino slipped her arms throw the jacket sleeves and zipped it up. The jacket was a bit on the small side but it was enough to cover up Ino's top so she won't get paint on it. Her skirt was still vulnerable, but beggars couldn't be choosers. The jacket smelt like the outdoors…and was that the smell of flowers?

The Genin team painted the fence in silence as their Jounin sensei kept watch over them.

* * *

**FORWARD MARCH MY MINIONS! TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!**


	4. Tree Walking 101

**Ch4: Tree Walking 101**

"Alright team" Asuma said as he walked into his team's training ground. It had been three days since Team Seven was formed and none of them were having a good time. They had thought that they would be having awesome adventures that they heard about from other older ninjas. Instead they were painting fences, pulling weeds and picking up trash.

As if the mind numbingly boring missions weren't enough, Asuma would always greet them with an infuriating smirk to further add fuel to their anger.

"I think you guys have done enough missions to deserve one break" the three sighed in relief. Kiba and Ino did, Naruto just grunted that he had heard his sensei.

Asuma nodded his head and motioned for the three to sit down in front of him. The Genin complied and sat facing their sensei. Asuma puffed on his cigarette a few more times before he snuffed out the finished part.

"First of all" the Jounin retrieved another cigarette "do you guys understand the meaning of Chakra and the part it plays in our lives as ninjas?" he looked at his two male students. Kiba looked like he was digging far into his memory banks to find the answer; Naruto looked like he wasn't even paying attention to the conversation. How both looked is probably hitting the nail on the head on what was happening in _their_ heads.

Asuma sighed; obviously he was going to have to rectify Naruto's new mood and Kiba's lack of knowledge. Hell, it looked like Akamaru knew the right answer as opposed to his master, who looked like he was about to pass a kidney stone.

The sensei of Team Seven turned to Ino who looked up in thought before nodding her head. At least there was hope for Ino, if only he could break her fangirl habit.

"Chakra" the Yamanaka began "is the life energy that every individual produces, to a certain degree that is. When someone runs out of chakra they may very well die. This is because chakra is basically like our cardiovascular system. However the pathway of chakra is known as a Chakra Pathway System. Chakra is a combination of a person's Physical and Spiritual energy that is located at our cores.

"Chakra benefits us Shinobi by allowing us to perform Jutsu because we are taught to generate and release more chakra outside of our bodies through our pressure points known as tenketsu or chakra points. So the more chakra generated the stronger the jutsu"

Ino took a breath after she finished her textbook explanation. The three males in the clearing stared at her, two in shock and the other with an impressed look on his face.

"Nicely done Ino" Asuma praised the Yamanaka making the girl blush at the praise. Only her parents ever praised her and in the academy Sakura would beat her to every explanation. Ino was ranked the second smartest girl in the class for a reason. Sakura was just a bit smarter than her.

"That is why we will be working to bring up each of your charka control" Asuma blew out some smoke "to perform a jutsu at its best one will need to have good chakra control and depending on your chakra reserves it will show how easy you can master a jutsu" All three looked at Asuma in confusion. That explanation was so confusing even Iruka would be confused, they thought.

"What I mean is, if someone has smaller reserves there's a chance they will master a jutsu faster than a person who has bigger reserves" Asuma reached into his kunai pouch as he searched for something "however the person with smaller reserves might not use the jutsu to its maximum potential, only to the best as they can make it" Kiba raised his hand.

"Is there a chance that someone can make their chakra pool bigger?" he asked. Asuma nodded his head.

"There are certain training methods to raise one's chakra pool, but it will only grow as big as the person's genetics will allow it" Asuma looked up at the sky in thought "in fact there was once a clan that had enormous amounts of chakra in their system it was said to rival that of Kages. However that meant that chakra control exercises were kind of difficult for them at first" the three were interested now.

"Who were they?" asked Ino but the answer she got was a kunai landing in front of her, surprising her and her team-mates, who also had kunai dig into the ground in front of them.

"You guys don't need to know now" the bearded jounin grinned at them "what you do need to know is what exercise you will be doing to up your chakra control"

Asuma walked towards a tree and continued walking without slowing down, the closer he got to the tree. He surprised the three when he continued walking up the tree with his hands in his pockets. Asuma walked further up the tree until he was standing on a branch looking down at his team, who were awestruck.

"This is known as Tree Walking" he grinned wider at the three "an essential part of any person's growth as a shinobi" Asuma crouched down on the branch "all you're required to do is focus chakra into your feet and then you'll be able to walk up the tree. Easy right?" the three nodded "good, then each of you pick a tree and start practising. Remember focus enough chakra into your feet and you'll be able to tree walk. Oh, and use those kunai to mark your progress"

The three gave one more nod before they picked up their kunai and each ran over to a tree to start practicing.

* * *

"How the hell did you make it up the tree so fast?!" Kiba shouted at Ino, who was sitting on a higher branch than her sensei had been perched on. The Yamanaka stuck her tongue out at her team-mates well pulling her one eye lid down in a mocking gesture.

"Maybe I'm just better than you two" Ino smirked "ever think of that kibble breath?" the taunting and the nickname that Ino used made Kiba growl in annoyance.

"I'm impressed Ino" Asuma commented from his position at the bottom of Ino's tree. The girl gave an arrogant grin "however that was expected" okay, that kind of threw Ino for a loop. What Asuma said kind of sounded like he was praising her but the _way_ he said it was confusing.

"What do you mean Asuma-sensei?" Ino looked down at the man.

"What I mean is" Asuma took a breath, this wasn't going to make Ino very happy "for women chakra control exercises are easier to master because of their smaller chakra reserves when compared to a male's reserves"

Ino almost fell off the branch she was perched on at the explanation her sensei just gave her. It sounded so sexist! The Yamanaka girl wasn't very impressed at what her sensei just said and it probably showed on her face because Asuma held up his hands as if to stop her.

"It may sound sexist but it's the truth" Asuma lowered his hands to look at the blond girl "there are rarely women with big chakra reserves anymore when they start out as shinobi. Heck, even Tsunade of the Sannin had small enough reserves that medical ninjutsu was a piece of cake for her" Ino narrowed her eyes.

"So you're basically telling me that Tsunade, a role model for all kunoichi has small chakra reserves?" Ino hissed out. Asuma sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"I'm not saying that at all. What I **am** saying is that Tsunade **had** small reserves so she began to up her chakra pool and at the same time she upped her chakra control so that she could still continue as a medical shinobi" he looked up at his female student, who still didn't look pleased but accepted Asuma's explanation non the less.

"Will all of you shut-up?" an angry growl made everyone turn their attention to the male blond of Team Seven, who had his back to them but it was obvious that he was annoyed "I'm trying to concentrate here" he formed the ram seal and shut his eyes to gather chakra.

Ino and Kiba frowned at the boy. The day after the ramen stand incident Naruto had been grumpy and bitching about everything, sometimes silently and sometimes out loud.

Suffice to say both Yamanaka and Inuzuka were starting to get fed up with the attitude because first of all it went against the version of Naruto that they had grown up with and secondly it actually annoyed the hell out of them!

"Alright I've had enough!" Kiba stomped over to Naruto and grabbed the boy by his shoulder then spun him around. Naruto was momentarily confused before he glared at Kiba "What the hell is your problem?!"

"I could ask you the same question" Naruto swatted Kiba's hand away "why the hell did you distract me from my training?!" the two were glaring daggers at one another.

"Oh, I'm distracting you?" Kiba said in a fake shocked tone "must be annoying huh? Well that's exactly how the hussy and I have been feeling every time you start bitching about every little thing!" Naruto grabbed Kiba by the front of his jacket, the Inuzuka doing the same to him.

"If you got a problem with me then let's settle this like shinobi" Naruto growled narrowing his eyes dangerously. Kiba growled back and held his free hand out to the side in a cupped form, his sharp nails becoming apparent. Naruto held his free hand out and formed a fist with it.

The two were stopped however by someone pushing them apart and forcing them to let go of one another.

"Okay, that's enough" Asuma had a frown on his face "I thought that this would just blow over but it seems that I'm going to have to step in here" the guy turned his frown onto Naruto, who glared at him "You're coming with me"

Not even giving the blond boy a chance to retort Asuma pulled him away from his team-mates and dragged him towards the forest that surrounded the training ground.

The two other members of Team Seven were left to watch their sensei and team-mate vanish into the surrounding foliage. They kept watch for another minute before Kiba went back to his training. At least he could now continue training without someone constantly releasing an angry vibe. So it was a surprise when he felt an angry glare being directed at him.

"Did you call me what I think you called me?" Ino's icy tone made sweat appear at the back of Kiba's head. It would appear that Ino was pissed and the fact that Asuma had pissed her off not too long ago which meant that the Inuzuka was going to be the outlet for her anger.

'Fuck me…' he thought in despair as Ino jumped from her perch on her branch.

* * *

When Asuma and Naruto came back the two were surprised to find that Naruto was actually smiling and had a peaceful look on his face. It intrigued and kind of scared Ino and Kiba. Asuma sighed tiredly as he glanced over at Naruto, who looked like he had just won the lottery.

"Better now?" he asked and raised a brow when Naruto turned his happy look onto him.

"Thank you Asuma-sensei" he said, reaching into his pocket "and yes, I do feel much better. Who knew that that was the reason that I was so grumpy" Naruto shrugged his shoulders and pulled something out of his pocket. Kiba and Ino freaked out at what they saw.

Naruto pulled out a packet of cigarettes, but that wasn't what freaked them out. No, it was the fact that Naruto pulled out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth without a second thought. They were even more shocked when Asuma pulled out a lighter and tossed it to the blond boy, who proceeded to light the cancer stick in his mouth. Naruto took a drag before he blew out a puff of smoke and released a happy sigh.

"That's the good stuff" he said wistfully. Ino was the one who snapped out of her shocked demeanour first. She stomped over to Naruto and got in his face. Her blond counterpart looked slightly surprised at the intrusion of his space but didn't say anything.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" shouted Ino. Naruto blinked as if the shout didn't even surprise him and it probably didn't by the unfazed look on his face. The Uzumaki blew out a puff of smoke into Ino's face making the girl step back to cough.

"Smoking" Naruto answered as if it was obvious, it kinda was but that wasn't what Ino was asking.

"Why the hell are you-" Ino had to stop so she could cough some more "smoking?! Don't you know that it's bad for you?!" she opened her eyes to glare at the boy but noticed that Naruto wasn't even paying attention to her. He was in a world of his own. Ino felt very insulted and made it known how insulted she felt by grabbing the cigarette in Naruto's mouth and pulling it away.

"Don't ignore me!" she shouted in anger but that anger vanished the moment she looked into Naruto's eyes. The boy was pissed, more pissed than he was before Asuma dragged him away.

"Give. It. Back" Naruto said in slow and angry tone. Ino could have sworn she saw the boy's eyes turn red for a second but after she blinked she noticed the eyes were back to the cerulean blue that they always were.

Ino hesitantly handed the cigarette back to its owner, who nodded his head in approval. Naruto took the cigarette and took a few quick puffs and blew out smoke before he sighed happily. Kiba and Ino made way so that Naruto could walk through towards his training tree.

The two felt someone grab their shoulders and turned to look at the person. Asuma sighed once again and pulled two back a bit so that Naruto wouldn't hear them. When they were some distance away that Naruto wouldn't hear them did Asuma start to speak.

"Listen, don't bother Naruto right now" he said scratching the back of his head "he's still very easy to piss off at the moment and the slightest provocation can make him snap. So for God's sake don't take his cigarette away from him" the three looked over to where the boy was located to see if he was listening to him but Naruto was currently playing with Akamaru, who was yipping happily.

"Why is he smoking Asuma-sensei?" Kiba asked in a curious tone. Like Ino, Kiba was curious as to why Naruto was suddenly smoking a cigarette. The two knew **where** Naruto got the cigarette from. They just wanted to know why Naruto was smoking.

Asuma hung his head in tiredness it seemed like he didn't want to get into this but he did owe an explanation to Naruto's two team-mates as to why the boy had suddenly taken to smoking.

"Remember when Ayame tried to teach Naruto a lesson by making him smoke that packet of cigarettes you guys got for the test?" the two nodded so Asuma continued "she thought that she would make the boy sick of cigarettes if she forced him to smoke the pack…but it actually backfired and Naruto got addicted. That was why he had been moody from then till now. His body was craving another smoke but Naruto didn't know this"

Ino frowned in worry and glanced over at her blond male team-mate "but it's an unhealthy habit Asuma-sensei…" she looked at Asuma with an annoyed look on her face "and one smoker on this team is enough" Asuma just shrugged his shoulders unaffected at the accusing look his female student was directing at him.

"When it comes to what's unhealthy for Naruto you'd be surprised at what is _really _unhealthy for him" Asuma walked away from the two "between the two of us I'm more likely to get lung cancer before Naruto does"

Kiba and Ino looked at each other in confusion before they went over to where their team-mate and sensei were to continue their training.

* * *

"Hey Ino" Naruto spoke up from his position in front of his tree. The blond female that he called was sitting under her tree trying to catch her breath. Asuma wanted her to fully master the tree walking exercise. So he had her running up and down the tree non-stop until her chakra reserves gave out.

It wasn't her reserves that gave out first. It was her stamina that kicked the bucket so Asuma let her rest for a bit well he left the training ground to pick up something for them to eat.

"Yeah?" Ino replied in a raspy voice as she looked up to where her blond team-mate was located. Naruto was still staring up at his tree well he spoke to Ino; at least he had smoked enough cigarettes for the moment so he wasn't puffing on a cancer stick.

"How did you do it? Tree walking I mean" Naruto looked over his shoulder at his female team-mate. Ino blinked in surprise. This was a first, not many people asked for her advice on something. Apparently she was the most competent Genin on this team, well considering who she was paired with that made sense.

Ino looked up in thought she didn't know what she did to make the tree walking exercise seem so easy. It just kinda felt like second nature to her. However if she put her mind to it then she could understand the basics on what the requirements were.

Ino had been observing her team-mates well they were practicing. Unlike her unblemished tree, save for a few slashes here and there where she lost her concentration, Naruto's and Kiba's trees were a mess of slashes and dents.

"Well…" Ino held up her finger well closing her eyes. Naruto was reminded of when Iruka began his lectures "first of all do you remember the explanation that I gave about chakra and its application to our lives as Shinobi?" when Naruto nodded Ino patted the area in front of her. Naruto raised a brow but complied with his team-mates unspoken request.

"First of all, how much chakra are you channelling into your feet when you start the jutsu?"

"A lot"

"A little"

The two blonds looked over to see Kiba sitting next to Naruto. He was the one that said a little. Instead of questioning the boy's sudden appearance Ino continued with her explanation.

"You're both wrong then" Ino got to her feet, she felt a bit better now "First of all if you channel to much chakra into your foot you have the chance of denting the tree and blasting off it" she pointed to Naruto's tree which was filled with dents "however if you add to little then you will slip off the tree because there isn't enough chakra to support you" she pointed to Kiba's tree, which had most of the kunai strikes close to the bottom of it.

"What you have to do is find the balance between the two and you'll be able to walk up the tree. However you have to continue keeping this same flow of chakra running through your feet to walk up and stay connected to the tree" Ino felt proud of herself. It wasn't every day that she played teacher, why couldn't Sasuke be there to see her now? He'd probably shower her with praise.

"So we have to keep a flow of chakra running through our feet?" Kiba asked making Ino nod. He nodded his head "I see. So if you have so much knowledge how come you still run out of chakra so quickly?" he smirked and that made Ino deflate quite comically.

"You heard Asuma-sensei, dog boy!" Ino looked off to the side with an angry blush "girls have smaller reserves than guys" she mumbled. Kiba had meant it as a harmless jab but seeing Ino's anger filled eyes he knew that he crossed a line and that meant Ino was going to explode on someone.

He glanced over to his other team-mate and noticed that he had put a cigarette in his mouth and was in the process of lighting it. Kiba couldn't have found a better scapegoat right now.

"She's all yours" Kiba patted Naruto on the shoulder before he took off to the other end of the training ground. Naruto was momentarily confused at Kiba's sudden escape but a look at Ino's angry eyes, which were directed at him, told him that he had once again been thrown under the bus.

'Oh man…' Naruto thought and took the unlit cigarette out of him mouth, least he make Ino angrier 'gotta play this right'

"Hey Ino" he grinned at her "I know what Asuma-sensei said earlier about girls having smaller chakra reserves got to you, but I think it's a good thing-" he held up his hands to stop the girl from shouting at him "I think it's a good thing because that means you'll master a jutsu faster than me or Kiba and that means we will always be turning to you for advice" Naruto grinned wider "Besides, you're one of the smartest girls in our class…" Ino's mood was beginning get better but there was a chance that if he says the wrong thing he could make the girl angrier. Naruto wracked his brain for what to say that would make a girl happy and he was reminded of when he spoke to Sakura as Sasuke. Now, what was Ino insecure about?

"You're one of the prettiest girls I know…" Ino blinked in surprise, she wasn't expecting that "you're also the fittest and energetic girl I've ever seen…" Ino started blushing the more Naruto praised her "and er, oh yeah! I really like your long hair. It makes you look pretty, Dattebayo!"

By now Ino was almost as red as Hinata would be if she spoke to Naruto, speaking of the blond boy the fact that he, of all the boys in the class was praising her like this…it made Ino's heart want to jump out of her chest. That made her brain start arguing that this was **Naruto**, the fact that he was praising her shouldn't make her feel this way, she was dead set on Sasuke. However her heart was saying so much stuff to counter what her brain was saying that Ino couldn't keep up.

Kiba had stalked back over the minute he didn't hear Ino shouting at Naruto and he was just as shocked as Ino, who was now at a loss for words.

"I…I-I" the Yamanaka girl looked off to the side with her arms crossed "O-Of course I-I'm the prettiest in the class! I-I don't need your confirmation on that!" she tried to look annoyed but the blush on her cheeks spoke for her "I-It took you long enough to notice, baka!"

Naruto sweat dropped 'At least she's not as angry anymore' he sighed in relief as Ino went on a self-rant about how beautiful she was.

"Classic Tsundere" Naruto turned his head to see his other team-mate and sensei standing there with impressed looks on their faces "She's a keeper" the two looked over to him and gave him a thumbs up with crocodile tears running down their cheeks.

'What the hell are these weirdos on about?!' Naruto thought in shock.

* * *

Team Seven sat in a circle as they ate their bentos that Asuma went to get them. The order of seating was Asuma and Naruto sitting across from one another and Ino and Kiba sitting across from one another, with Akamaru in the middle chewing on a piece of meat Kiba brought for him.

Everything had calmed down since the 'Tsundere incident' that Asuma and Kiba had dubbed what transpired earlier, much to Ino's cringe. Naruto still felt confused about what transpired but let it go. In his head he had completed what he had set out to do.

"So" the three Genin looked towards their sensei, all of them paused in their eating to pay Asuma the proper respect "concerning the progress you three made today…" he motioned to the three trees that they had been using "I'm sufficiently impressed by the effort and the determination that you three display when it comes to learning something new" the three Genin grinned "However, I expect you two-" he pointed to Kiba and Naruto who blinked in surprise and lost their grins "to have mastered this exercise by the end of three days because I'm moving onto another exercise. We will be doing a few missions before and after your training"

The three shivered in disgust. Those weren't _missions_ and Asuma knew it, but he insists on calling them that. Asuma just chuckled at their looks, he remembered when he was the one actively denouncing the notion of D-Rank missions being, well, missions.

"I know, I know" he said trying to ease away their disgusted looks "D-ranks are a bore; trust me I've been there. It was funny to watch you guys at first, but now it's just sad" the three frowned at him but didn't argue, at least Asuma was seeing their side of D-Ranks "the good news is, if we finish enough D-Ranks in time we can ask for a C-Rank and those don't involve any chores. They are mostly escorting people from one village to another or just a simple protection job"

Now **that** lifted the three's spirits. At least there was light at the end of the dark tunnel named D-Ranks.

"So, to prepare you three for those types of missions I want you to have a few chakra control exercises under your belt then we can move onto bigger things" the sound of bigger things intrigued the Genin "by that I mean we will start learning a few jutsu to help you in the field" okay, now the three were sold.

"Yes!" the three said in excitement and began to scarf down their bentos. Well, Naruto and Kiba began to eagerly finish their meals. Ino was basically done for the day, or so she thought.

"And Ino, I want you to continue going up and down the tree this time I want you to add a few jumps and do some cartwheels up the tree" Ino's face fell. Why did Asuma choose to torture her like that?

Wasn't it enough she could walk up the tree? Now she had to do cartwheels! Life is soooo unfair.

* * *

"Okay team, that's enough for today" Asuma called making Kiba and Naruto stop in their training. Ino was sitting against her tree with her head down. They had been training for 2 hours non-stop and the Yamanaka girl had run out a steam sometime after the 1 hour mark, a feat in her books.

"Like I said, we will be doing a few missions tomorrow morning before we continue our training" Naruto and Kiba groaned in annoyance "yeah, yeah" Asuma waved them off.

"So get here at 10 am sharp so we can do enough missions to meet our quota for that morning. We will take a few more missions after training so be sure to pack a hearty lunch so we can have enough energy to do more missions afterwards. Dismissed" the three males of Team Seven began walking towards the entrance/exit of their training ground.

It was when they got a certain distance away that Naruto noticed that they were missing their female team-mate. He turned back and noticed that Ino was still sitting under her tree.

"Hey Ino!" he called, making Asuma and Kiba pause in their trek to look back "let's go!" but the girl didn't stir.

The three males made their way back into the training ground to see why Ino was still stationed under the tree. When they got closer Kiba picked up the soft snoring that Ino was producing.

"Huh, she fell asleep" said the Inuzuka the minute they got closer. Asuma crouched down and snapped his fingers in front of Ino's face. The girl didn't even budge in her sleep.

"Yip, she's past exhaustion" the Jounin stood up and retrieved a cigarette from his pocket "one of us is going to have to take her home" he looked back to his two male team-mates and saw Kiba already on the other side of the training field.

"Not it!" he called before he exited the training ground. Asuma sweat dropped and turned to his last student. Naruto had also gotten himself a cigarette and had already lit it up.

"Well, it's all on you Naruto" Asuma patted the boy on the shoulder. Naruto looked up to his sensei but all he saw was a log with a note on it.

The blond boy picked up the note,

_I had a feeling this would happen. So I wrote down Ino's address._

_Good luck Naruto!_

"Is this a common thing for this team, to dump everything on me?!" Naruto screamed to the sky.

Naruto kept his angry look directed towards the sky for another minute before he sighed. No use getting pissed now that what's done is done, besides at least he'll know where Ino lives now. So that he can go get her if she forgets about a mission or training or something! He didn't have any perverted ideas!

With that Naruto made a Shadow Clone to help him put the sleeping girl on his back. The clone scooped Ino up, which was surprisingly easy and that was in itself a surprise because Ino was at least a few centimetres taller than Naruto.

The clone placed Ino on Naruto's back before he vanished. When the clone vanished Naruto hooked his arms under Ino's legs and began his trek towards the exit of the training ground.

'Hm Ino has a firm butt' a thought popped into Naruto's head making him pause. First of all that thought was **way** random/perverted and second, how did he know how Ino's butt felt like, his arms were under her legs and he made sure to keep his hands far away from that area. Least the girl wake up and beat the hell out of him.

* * *

**...Okay...You know the drill...**


	5. Babysitting is a bitch!

**Ch5: Babysitting is a bitch!**

"Yamanaka flower shop…Yamanaka flower shop…" Naruto mumbled as he walked down the street carrying his passed out team-mate. The name of the place sounded familiar.

He had dumped the cigarette after he had finished it and didn't have another one because it was kind of difficult to light it with Ino on his back.

"Yamanaka flower shop…Yamanaka flo- Oh there it is" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since he entered the village people had been giving him funny looks, not that he was surprised by people staring at him, that was normal, but the looks were different this time.

Naruto walked up to the store and noticed a woman with brown hair standing in front of the door with some groceries in her hands. The woman had on a green dress and had her hair in a bun.

"Excuse me" Naruto called out to the woman, who had her hand on the handle of the store.

The woman turned her attention to the person who called out to her and blinked when she saw a whiskered boy (of course she knew who he was) and another head draped over his shoulder.

"Yes?" she smiled at Naruto, kind of throwing Naruto for a loop.

"Um, are you Mrs Yamanaka?" Naruto asked and the brown haired woman nodded her head.

"Why yes I am" Naruto looked relieved and shuffled Ino a bit so that her mother could see her face. Instead of shouting at Naruto, as the boy expected her to do, the woman only blinked in surprise "Oh my. Is Ino sleeping?"

"Er yeah" Naruto said with an awkward grin. The only adults he ever socialised with was the Old Man, Iruka and as of recently he was starting to warm up to Asuma. So as you guessed he didn't know how to talk to female grown-ups "she overdid it today in training and Asuma-sensei asked me to take her home"

The way Naruto said 'asked' made Mrs Yamanaka giggle. It was obvious that the boy had no say in the matter.

"Please come in" Mrs Yamanaka held the door open for Naruto to enter, which the blond boy did, hesitantly mind you.

"I'll take her from you. I'm sure that you must be exhausted from carrying her all this way" Mrs Yamanaka placed her groceries on the counter of the flower shop so she could take her daughter from Naruto, who handed her over.

"Um not exactly" Naruto scratched the back of his head "Ino is very light…I don't think that's a very good thing actually" Mrs Yamanaka gave Naruto a questioning look.

"Oh? How so?" asked Mrs Yamanaka.

"Well um…" Naruto looked down "it's just that, the only time someone is that thin then it means that they don't really eat much, is Ino, um, eating enough?" he didn't want to pry but he was concerned. He knew what it was like to not have something hearty to eat.

Mrs Yamanaka smiled at Naruto's concern. Why couldn't her daughter like a sweet boy like this? It doesn't matter what anybody in the village said, he was a sweet boy that has had a run of bad luck. Maybe it was fate that Ino was put on his team.

Well the older female Yamanaka was going to make sure that the boy knew that not every villager had a clouded view on things. She had a promise she had to keep to the boy's mother after all…

"That's very sweet of you Naruto-kun" the woman smiled down at Naruto with a smile that Naruto had only seen on the Old Man's face and Iruka's face. It was a caring and sincere smile, one that wasn't fake or forced "Ino has been on a _diet_ for a while but recently she has begun to widened her variety of food she will eat and she's slowly getting the nutrients that she needs"

"Thank goodness" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and bowed "I'll be going now. It was nice to meet you Mrs Yamanaka and you have a nice store, I really like your flowers" Naruto turned to the doorway.

"Hold on a moment Naruto" the boy stopped midway to the door and turned back. Mrs Yamanaka had taken Ino to the back and placed her in a comfortable position on a chair that was in the back room before she came back out.

"Yes?" Naruto asked. The woman smiled at him and reached under the counter. When she got what she needed the woman walked over and grabbed Naruto's hand, making the boy freeze momentarily. The woman placed something in his hands and backed off.

Naruto looked at what she gave him and his eyes widened. It was a packet of seeds. He looked up and saw the same smile on the woman's face.

"I remember when you were little you would stop in front of our shop and stare at the flowers we had" Naruto blushed up a storm "I also remember that one day someone broke our window and stole the cash we had in the register. That person was later found with his pants around his ankles, tape over his mouth and tied up. Oh let's not forget the fact that he was covered in orange paint" the two chuckled.

"I wanted to thank you but I never saw you again after that, you not only returned the money, but you caught the guy who had done the deed" the woman smiled wider "I know that you like flowers and gardening" Naruto began to say something to refute that claim but he was cut off by the older woman "the Third Hokage came to our shop to get some seeds for you for your birthday. He said you couldn't stop talking about 'the pretty flowers at the shop'" Naruto's blush got worse. The Old man is just asking to be pranked now.

"This is a token of my gratitude. I'm sorry there's not much else I can give you but those seeds are Lantanas and they are beautiful orange flowers" Naruto forgot all about his blush and looked down at the seeds in wonder those would look great next to his other plants "also feel free to come by any time you're always welcome here"

Naruto looked up at the woman and saw no hint of deceit in her face or in her voice. She was genially saying he was welcome. Naruto smiled at the woman, a real smile that he very rarely showed to others.

"Thank you Mrs Yamanaka!" Naruto bowed his whole upper body "you don't know how much this means to me. I swear that I will come back!" the boy stood up straight and made his way to the store front.

As he opened the door Naruto walked straight into someone, who reacted in time to catch the boy by his shoulders to keep him from falling.

"You okay there kid?" Naruto opened his eyes and saw a blond man looking at him in concern.

The man had on the standard Jounin outfit with a red cloak over it. His sandy blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"I'm fine. Thanks" Naruto grinned at the man and straightened himself before turning back to Mrs Yamanaka, who was giggling "thank you again Mrs Yamanaka. Oh! And tell Ino that she's gotta be at the training ground by 10 am sharp!" he moved past the blond man and ran down the street "bye!" he shouted.

The blond man watched Naruto vanish around a corner with confused eyes. He turned back to the store and saw Mrs Yamanaka still giggling. The man raised a brow at the woman.

"Was that Naruto?" he asked and the woman nodded her head "How come he was here?" the man asked.

"Oh. He was just dropping off Ino-chan" Mrs Yamanaka stopped giggling and was now smiling "apparently she over worked herself and Naruto carried her home"

Inoichi nodded his head. He didn't really like boys touching his princess of a daughter but he knew that Naruto wouldn't do anything to Ino. Inoichi knew that if Naruto was even half like his parents then that meant he was chivalrous.

"That was nice of him" the man's shoulders slumped "I'm just a bit disappointed that Ino wasn't paired up with Choji and Shikamaru to continue the InoShikaCho Trio" the woman walked over and patted the man's back.

"There, there dear" the woman smiled "there's always the next generation and hey if Ino plays her cards right the next Ino of the trio might even have another clan's blood running through them" that made Inoichi's depressed aura vanish to be replaced with a curious one.

"You're not suggesting that she get together with the Uchiha boy are you?" Mrs Yamanaka shook her head and left her husband's side so she could take the groceries upstairs.

"No, but I will say that the our grandchild might come out as a redhead" the woman vanished up the stairs leaving a shocked Inoichi in her wake "Oh yes, and take Ino-chan to her room please"

* * *

If you asked Team Seven to honestly say what they thought about D-Ranks then you're guaranteed to get so many pages of complaints from them it would dwarf the amount of paperwork the Hokage receives in a week (which is a lot).

It took all their strength to get up and get ready for a hellish day of D-Ranks, yet they did it without fail and only minor bitching.

Of course they bitch; they're the three loudest people of their graduating class (if you didn't count Sakura, that is).

Their volume tended to rise when they got in heated debates or arguments. That didn't stop them from getting the D-Rank jobs done though. Heck, the three argue _on_ the D-Rank missions and _still_ did a good job.

If Asuma would try to pin point the reasons for his team's performance on their missions he could very well do it with in a heart-beat.

Teamwork

Team 7 probably had the best teamwork of all the graduates of their year (that's was in Asuma's opinion). Why is that you ask? It was simple. They had no distractions to hinder them.

Asuma noticed that when it came to certain teams there was always some kind of drama that kept them from reaching their full potential. Take the three Sannin for example.

Don't get Asuma wrong. The tree Kage level ninja were known all over the elemental nations as the strongest. However their teamwork…that was something that needed work. Not that they could work on that _now_.

Love is a weird thing. It can either make you or break you. Asuma shuddered to think what would have happened if Sakura or Sasuke had been on the same team as either Ino or Naruto.

And since we're talking about the Genin of Team Seven, why don't we look in on what they were doing at the moment.

* * *

"Team Seven are next, Hokage-sama" said Iruka as he sat down the paper he was holding, on the desk in front of him.

"Okay, let them in" the aged Kage said as he stared at the door that led into the Mission hall the two were currently sitting in.

"Yes Hokage-sama" Iruka turned to the door and raised his voice a bit "you may enter!" he called, how he wished he didn't the minute they walked in.

"You're wrong!" Naruto was the one to shout the minute that the three walked in. However, he wasn't shouting at the Hokage or Iruka. Oh no, the blonde male was shouting at his two team-mates, more specifically Ino.

"No, I'm not!" Ino shouted right back, almost in Naruto's face. Her male counterpart didn't even flinch at the girl shouting in his face.

Iruka was about to raise his voice to remind the two that they were in the presence of the Hokage and that they had to show the proper respect to their leader. He was, however, interrupted by someone else shouting at the two.

"Both of you shut-up!" Kiba shouted at his two team-mates with a tick mark on his forehead. Their former teacher was about to thank the brown haired boy, but Kiba wasn't done shouting at the two "You're both wrong!"

"What?!" Naruto and Ino shouted in surprise, disbelief and anger "HOW?!"

After that, the shouting snowballed into a full on argument between the three. Strangely, they never mentioned what they were arguing about. By this point, even ANBU were trying to pop their ear drums, which were slightly blocked because of the volume the three were producing.

Iruka, having seen/heard all the disrespect he could take from the three, got up from his seat and stomped over to the, still arguing, Genin.

"OW!"

"OW!"

"OW! What the hell?!" Naruto shouted as he and his team-mates held their heads with pained expressions on their faces "Why'd you hit us Iruka-sensei?!"

"DO ANY OF YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW?!" the three almost felt like they were going to be blown away by the wind that Iruka produced when he shouted at them.

"Ichiraku's"

"Clothing Store"

"Home"

BAM

Naruto, Ino and Kiba got chopped on their heads at the same time, by Iruka and Asuma.

"You're in front of the Hokage" Iruka sighed well rubbing his temples. All three of them were a pain to deal with when they were in the academy together. Thankfully, they weren't on speaking terms back then. Now it was another story "show him the proper respect" he walked back to his seat.

The Chunin paused in his trek, to turn back to the three, who were getting up from the ground, where they fell the first time they got hit on their heads.

"What were the three of you arguing about anyway?" he asked the question that many in the room wanted to know.

"The weather" the three answered, without missing a heartbeat. Their answer made Iruka face-fault and the people in the room sweat-drop.

"You three…No…I'm not dealing with this anymore" Iruka said as he got and made his way to his seat again "You three are someone else's problem now" he sat down and tried to calm down the headache that was threatening to turn into a migraine.

The Third Hokage cleared his throat with a cough making everyone focus their attention on him. The aged Kage grabbed some papers that were in a pile on his right hand side.

"So, I'm assuming that you three are here for more missions?" the Genin in the room made disgusted looks when the Hokage said _Missions_.

"Yes Hokage-sama" Asuma answered for his team "Team Seven reporting for duty" he felt their pain, he really did, but damn, it was fun to watch the three suffer the hell called D-Rank missions.

"Well we have plenty to choose from" When he said that the Genin of Team Seven groaned. The Third shuffled through the papers in his hand, as he did he read the descriptions of each one "we have Misses Takeshi, who needs someone to pull out the weeds in her backyard. The Academy has requested that we send a team to help them sort out some of the files for next year's students. The Akimichi's have asked for a Genin team to help scrap off the grills in their restaurant, and finally we have a request from an orphanage, the lady who runs it has passed away and they are looking for someone to replace her so they need a Genin team to look after the kids for a couple of days" Hiruzen put the papers down and looked at the team standing in front of him "those are your choices"

"Well, it's up to you guys" said Asuma, he at least let the three choose the missions they wanted to do. He wasn't _that_ evil.

"Which orphanage is it?" Naruto asked. His team-mates noticed that the blond boy had a very intrigued look on his face.

"Second Hope Orphanage" it was Iruka that answered, after he took a look at the name on the paper "it's the one-"

"Next to the park" Naruto nodded his head with his eyes closed "we'll take that one" he said stepping forward to take the scroll from the wrinkled hand of the Hokage.

"Wait, Wha?" Ino had a confused look on her face "we didn't agree to that" she was obviously talking about Kiba and herself.

"Please?" Naruto turned around with a sheepish grin on his face "I'll owe you one Ino-chan" the blond boy didn't understand it, but every time he called her Chan, the girl would stop arguing and her face would turn red. He at first thought she was sick, so he had placed his hand on her forehead and put his forehead on the back of his hand to measure the temperature. That got the boy a punch in the gut, a few angry words from Ino and having to suffer from Kiba laughing at his misfortune.

Only when Asuma explained that the Yamanaka was blushing did Naruto understand. When he asked why she was blushing the bearded Jounin just shrugged and answered with:

_"__Girls are a mystery"_

"Fine" she said looking off to the side well crossing her arms "but I expect you to pay me back ten-fold"

'Tsundere' everybody in the room, except Naruto, thought.

"Wait, don't I get a say?" Kiba spoke up, noticing that Naruto didn't try to plead with him also.

"Nope!" Naruto laughed as he strolled out the room with his hands behind his head and a grin on his face. A, still, blushing Ino followed after him.

* * *

"I did NOT agree to this!" Ino shouted as she and Kiba were tied back to back. Akamaru was on top of a wardrobe shivering in fear as children surrounded the puppy's safe haven all of them trying to reach up for him.

It was chaos the minute Team Seven set foot in the orphanage. When they entered the children instantly surrounded them and stared in wonder.

The Chunin that was behind the counter almost broke the sound barrier with how fast he exited the building with nothing back a rushed goodbye.

When the three turned around to see where he vanished to they saw a note pinned to wall next to the door.

_Got some errands to run_

_I'll pick up some lunch for you guys_

_Later_

_Asuma Sarutobi (AKA your sensei)_

If that wasn't insulting enough, there was a badly drawn picture of a chibi Asuma holding up a peace sign.

Ino ripped the piece of paper apart after she read it finish. Her sensei was pushing her buttons and he knew he was doing it by pulling these stunts. He was doing things that got on Ino's nerves like, for example, _accidently_ dropping a can of paint, or anything else that can leave a stain, close to her so the solo female member of Team Seven had to either dodge in a spilt second or have to sit and scrub her stained dress all night.

When Ino turned around she noticed that it was only her in the hallway and everything was oddly quiet.

"Hello?" she called and walked further into the building. When she didn't get an answer after a few seconds she tried again.

"Naruto? Kiba?" however only silence met the blond girl.

There was the sound of giggling behind Ino making the blond girl turn around. What greeted her was an empty hallway and that freaked her out.

The Yamanaka was reminded of the horror movies she would watch with Sakura (they hung out, even though they were rivals) when the pinkette would stay over. This scene reminded her of the one where the pretty blond girl was in an empty hallway and something…jumped…out at…her…

If anybody would ask Ino what a happened next she would feverishly deny that she got the scare of her life by a bunch of kids jumping out from, God knows where. She would also deny that she screamed so loud she was sure that people 10 blocks down could hear her.

* * *

"Grovel before your king!" Naruto laughed loudly as he stood atop a mountain of stacked tables and chairs. He wore a make-shift crown on his head and a cape that was made from a former curtain that had once been used to cover a window.

"Damnit Naruto!" Ino shouted as she was dog piled onto the floor by a bunch of giggling toddlers "Get off there and help me!"

"That is NOT how you talk to your king!" Naruto pointed his "scepter" at the girl. The scepter was basically a ruler that had a tennis ball on the end that he was pointing at Ino.

"Respect the king!" a little girl that was sitting on Naruto's shoulders shouted with her hand raised to the sky "all hail King Naruto-nii-san!"

"Hail the king!" the other kids shouted, even though half of them didn't know what "hail" meant.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Ino glared at the boy as one of the girls grabbed her hair and started pulling it into 'hairstyles' "If you don't help me, or call your little minions off me I'm gonna beat the living hell out of you!"

"Naruto-nii-sama, she's disrespecting you" said a boy who sat on two chairs stacked on top of each other next to Naruto "she should be _punished_"

"I agree" Naruto pursed his lips and nodded his head. He opened his eyes and pointed the scepter towards the door of the room they were in "send her to the chair!"

The 'chair' was basically a swivel that was located at the front desk of the orphanage. However, whoever they put in the chair was tied up and subjected to endless torture, namely having their faces drawn on with crayons and/or markers. Not only were their faces defaced (pun intended) but their clothes also got a 'make-over'.

So surface to say, Ino was terrified of the 'chair'. She had seen what had happened to Kiba after he had been captured trying to escape.

Ino had counted herself lucky that they were so focused on Kiba that they didn't notice her slip away. But before she left the girl said a quick prayer for her team-mate.

Her freedom was short lived, because the other children noticed her running down the hallway and gave chase.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" Ino shouted and winced when the girl trying to play hairdresser, tugged her hair to put it in a second ponytail "C-Come on N-Naruto…" she gave a weak chuckle "W-We're f-friends…right?" she tried to give the best puppy dog face she could.

"Friends…?" Naruto grabbed his chin in thought and squinted his eyes "we are friends, yes" Ino sighed in relief, but she instantly sucked it back in when Naruto continued talking "but you disrespected your King. So you must be punished somehow"

Ino went pale as she heard the sounds of the _chair's _wheel getting closer to her current position. Dirt from the floor she could handle, a small stain of milk could be washed out. Permanent marker and paint? The long hellish nights…she could see them now. What was even worse was the fact that she would have to throw out her clothing if she couldn't succeed in getting the marks off.

"Wait…" the chair stopped, making Ino release the scared breath she was holding. The girl on Naruto's shoulders had placed her hands on Naruto's head and leaned forward to get a closer look at Ino.

It appeared that this girl and the boy on the chairs had established themselves as the second and third in command, who was which Ino didn't know.

"She's kind of pretty" the girl squinted her eyes "I say she becomes our Queen!" Naruto and the boy gasped.

"You want to replace me/Naruto-nii-san?!" they shouted.

"No way!" the girl sat up again and crossed her arms "we girls want a female role model to look up to alongside Naruto-nii-san" she pointed at Ino "so she will become our Queen alongside Naruto-nii-san"

'Queen…?' Ino blinked in confusion. That was the last thing she expected to come out of the girl's mouth, Ino took comfort in the fact that she had called her pretty. However something in the girl's proclamation was weighing on Ino's thought process.

"So…she'd be Naruto-nii-san's wife?" the boy made a disgusted look "gross" he said.

"Well, I like it" the girl placed her hands together and stared off dreamily with a sigh "it's romantic. A humble king falls in love with a commoner girl, she tries to be the Queen that her subjects want but she's so clumsy. The King doesn't care though, and continues loving her and showing support" the girl and the other females of the orphanage gave a dreamy sigh.

"So romantic!" they all said at the same time. It appeared that she was a big dreamer.

"No way!" the boy shouted crossing his arms "Naruto-nii-san doesn't need no girl to rule" he frowned "stop living in a fantasy!"

"Oh yeah? Well why don't we let Naruto-nii-san decide" the girl leaned over so that she could look Naruto in the eyes with puppy dog eyes.

"Um…well…" Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head "I guess…if it's okay with you guys" he looked at the other children, who cheered.

"Yeah!" the girl cheered and straightened herself to point at the children "get her royal clothing and make her a throne next to Naruto-nii-san!" she clapped her hands together "a husband and wife must rule alongside each other!"

Ino had tuned out what the girl was saying when the boy said she'd be Naruto's _wife_. A bright red blush had taken over majority of her face and she could not process what was happening around her.

The next thing she knew, the girl was sitting next to Naruto with a similar _cape_ on around her neck, only this one was pink instead of red.

"All hail the King and Queen!" the girl cheered making the other children in the room cheer as well.

"Wh-What happened?" Ino shakily asked as she turned to look at her second male team-mate.

"We're married now…I guess, Dattebayo" Naruto chuckled with a small blush on his face.

"WHAT?!" Ino shouted.

"Kiss!" the girl, who had climbed off of Naruto's shoulders and stood next to the boy, shouted. That set off the other girls in the room, who also called for a kiss.

The two pre-teens snapped their heads towards the crowd of children in shock.

"N-No!" Ino shook her hands "Th-The-There's n-no way w-we can k-k-kiss!" if her face was red before, now it was inventing new shades of the colour.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" the girls chanted, some of the boy's started chanting as well when they saw the distressed look on Ino's face.

"NO!" Ino screamed, but she doubted she could be heard over the children's chanting, which was getting louder by the second "A k-kiss i-is between two s-special people wh-who lov-"

Ino's shouting along with the cheering stopped dead in its tracks. Why did that happen? Well, Naruto had taken it upon himself to give the children what they wanted.

He pecked Ino on her cheek well she was shouting at the children. That had replaced the chanting with cheering and Ino staring at him with her hand on her cheek, where Naruto had kissed her.

* * *

"Soooo…how was it?" Asuma asked his unusually quiet team.

Kiba was walking with his hands in his pockets and his head facing the floor, he had his hood on so that no one would see the _art_ that the children drew on his face. Akamaru was walking alongside his master with his head down and his tail between his legs.

Naruto was walking with his hands behind his head and a cigarette in his mouth. Of the three of them, he looked the most normal, if not tired.

When it came to the last team member of Team Seven Asuma REALLY wanted to know what happened. Ino's face was blushing a bright red that could very well be mistaken for a beacon to draw in ships. Not only that but she was looking at the ground well poking her fingers together. She reminded Asuma of the Hyuuga heiress, who would do this when she was around Naruto.

Actually…Ino kept glancing at Naruto from the corner of her eye and looking away.

'Maybe we should skip missions tomorrow' Asuma closed his eyes with a sweat drop.

* * *

**We're here...Thank the great loli God in the sky... (Because it sounds fun reference). Hope y'all enjoyed!**


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